SCDHB

A new scheme to provide ongoing cover to South Canterbury general practitioners is up and running with the appointment of locum GP Dr Tom Sheddan.

Chief Executive Chris Fleming says the scheme is about ensuring a sustainable GP workforce by helping local GPs cover for holidays and leave periods. A couple of GPs who live in the district already undertake regular locum work and are booked up well in advance, so the need for more locum help was strong.

Under the new scheme, Primary and Community Services recruits locum GPs who will work in the district for several months at a time. South Canterbury DHB underwrites recruitment costs and subcontracts the locums to local general practitioners.

Locum GPs recruited to the scheme are experienced practitioners who are approved by the New Zealand Medical Council.

The scheme's first appointee, Dr Tom Sheddan, trained in Glasgow, Scotland, and has a varied and interesting background. He was an emergency room physician for nine years, has served as a flight physician out of London, and as a senior registrar in the emergency department of a Dublin hospital.

He most recently concluded 18-months as the medical director of the only international-standard medical clinic in Mongolia.

Dr Sheddan has arrived in South Canterbury with his partner Gabriele, an electrical engineer.

"New Zealand is a place we had always wanted to visit. This opportunity to locum for a few months came up just as our time in Mongolia was ending, so we made a very quick trip back to Europe before coming here. The timing was really perfect."

Dr Sheddan says he enjoys rural practice and values the continuity of care that general practice affords. "Building a relationship with patients over time is something special. I take a practical, commonsense, holistic approach with my patients. Though I sometimes miss a bit the trauma and excitement of emergency medicine, general practice offers its own challenges."

So far Dr Sheddan has formed a favourable impression of the health system in South Canterbury. "The feedback GPs get from the [Timaru] hospital's emergency room is excellent; it really helps to close the loop so that GPs know what is going on with their patients while they are in hospital. That doesn't happen in a lot of the places I've worked."

Though his locum work will keep him busy, Dr Sheddan may do a bit of genealogical sleuthing while he's here. "A number of Sheddans came over by boat in the 1870s; the surname is possibly more common here now than it is back home," he says.

For more information contact:

Arlene Goss

Communications Manager

Ph: 03 687 2395, Fax: 03 688 0238, Mobile:  027 276 4259