Senior Emergency Locum Tim Bailey

This month, Beat Medical sat down with senior emergency locum Tim Bailey to discuss his experiences working with Beat Medical and throughout regional Australia.

Newcastle Medical School was where it all began, before graduating in 1983 and working as a general resident in Emergency and one year as an emergency registrar.

Tim then found himself at the Hunter Area Health Service before moving onto Goulburn where he spent five years and underwent further study for his Medical Admin and Masters in Public Health which he completed in 1995. Before becoming a rural GP, he worked in various country towns and communities including Inverell, Crookwell, Braidwood and interstate to Tasmania.

Today Tim can be found anywhere ‘rural’ – Wyong, Mildura, Batemans Bay, Moruya and of all places, the Albatross Navy Bass.

His reasoning for these locations is quite simple “I like the country and don’t like the office”.

Despite his rural ‘getaway’, the demands are quite high. When asked what his hours and work conditions were like as a locum in these locations, he admits it can be tough going.

“The hours are flexible- for March I worked, well pretty much all month….. They were big weeks…..”

He also admits the ‘culture’ is different to the metropolitan healthcare and hospital systems: “There is a difference in the access to higher education, but a more valued and more pragmatic approach to medicine – sometimes you have to do what works over what you have been told”.

“Rural healthcare is also under resourced, hence the importance of casual locums. This is why working with Beat Medical has been good – it has allowed me to continue to be flexible, but they also understand these issues and how to address them”.

With all his experiences, travels and years in the industry, there was sure to be a number of interesting cases for him to share.

“It doesn’t matter where I go, there is interesting and then there is just bizarre. Unfortunately though, in Emergency, it’s often these cases that don’t survive. Over the years I have seen a lot, but one of my favourite sayings is called (nbd)2 syndrome: Nearly bloody dead; nothing bloody done!”

His advice for the next recruits coming through: “Know what you want and ask for it”.

Beat Medical offers locum shifts in emergency across Australia for FACEMs, senior non-specialists, registrars, and junior doctors.

If you are interested in locum emergency work, please view our current vacancies or subscribe to our Emergency job alerts.