What its REALLY like in the country

On my rural prac i was working with a physio who covered an area the size of Victoria with one other physio. There were some parts of the region that would only get visited once every four months and even then patients would not necessarily get seen if the timing of the trip happened to fall on a funeral day, or if they had gone to visit relatives elsewhere. It is not hard to understand then how frustrated she got when she received referrals from major city hospitals asking for weekly physio for patients that they were sending back to some of these remote communities. Sometimes it is necessary to keep patients in Perth, even though they would prefer to be home with their families, because it is impossible for them to receive the kind/amount of treatment that they require back in their community.
Seeing first-hand just how remote some of these communities are, and how little clinic time they get has made me realise how important it is to make VERY careful decisions about discharge from the larger Perth hospitals. Discharge planning for patients who live in remote locations is of the utmost importance and I saw some very sad cases of patients who were lost to follow up due to the remoteness of where they live. I saw children with significant feet deformities who were pushed around in prams at the age of 6, and young men post-stroke who would have returned to normal function if they had had adequate rehab.... yet they have lost function of limbs.
I dont want to sound like I've jumped onto the "woe is us in rural" bandwagon, but it has really opened up my eyes to the reality of rural physiotherapy and the need for increased communication between the major perth hospitals and the rural hospitals to ensure that each patient is able to receive the treatment that they need and deserve.