Celebrating our rural generalists

Mount Gambier GP, Dr Michelle McIntosh undertook the Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) as a third-year medical student in Millicent, a small town near Mount Gambier in South Australia. Her experience with the program - recently renamed the Doctor of Medicine Rural Stream - shaped her decision become a rural general practitioner.

‘At that time Millicent GPs ran the hospital, provided daily anaesthetics cover, delivered babies, provided chemotherapy and haemodialysis, as well as running a GP clinic. The experience gave me an enormous admiration for the extent of their knowledge and skills,’ says Dr McIntosh.

‘The PRCC year gave me an excellent understanding of the challenges facing both rural and regional health services in South Australia. I enjoyed being part of a rural community and those established links played a role in me deciding to complete my intern year in Mount Gambier. It was the experiences that I had during my intern year that cemented my decision to practice rurally.

Dr McIntosh went on to become a GP Supervisor and a Clinical Educator at Flinders University’s Mount Gambier campus. She also worked as the Director of Clinical Training within the Junior Doctor Program and the Director of the Workplace Based Assessment Program.

‘It’s been a real privilege to be able to get to know medical students far more closely than I would in Adelaide, and there really is such a sense of pride in seeing them graduate into whichever type of doctor they choose to be.’

After making a significant contribution to medical training at Flinders University, Dr McIntosh has taken up a Medical Administrator training position at the Mount Gambier Hospital.

Feature image - Dr Michelle McIntosh (BMBS(Grad Entry) ‘08)

2013 PRCC program participants

RURAL MEDICAL PROGRAM Celebrates 20 years in 2022

Save the date to celebrate: Friday, 25 March 2022 | City Hall Complex, Mt Gambier

If you have taken part in the PRCC program / Doctor of Medicine Rural Stream in the Greater Green Triangle, please save the date to join past and present students, staff and clinical educators to celebrate 20 years of rural medical training in Mt Gambier, Millicent, Naracoorte, and Hamilton in Victoria.

To ensure you receive your invitation please register your interest:

flinders.edu.au/alumni-mtgambier2022