HAWKINS Medical Clinic has been named general practice of the year for 2019 across South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The prominent award – bestowed by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) – recognises the clinic’s contribution to the health of patients and the regional community.
The clinic will now vie for the national accolade with the successful parties announced later this year.
In particular, Hawkins was singled out for its significant contribution to teaching and training rural GPs.
Hawkins is the largest rural practice outside of metropolitan Adelaide and has operated for nearly 70 years.
Statistics show a staggering 154 doctors have trained and worked at Hawkins since 2002.
Clinic partner Dr Mike Bruorton said Hawkins currently had 27 GPs, the highest in the facility’s history.
“This maintains a vibrant teaching ethos and helps deliver our goal to meet the needs of the community,” Dr Bruorton said.
Over the past 17 years, the expansive regional clinic has seen more than 150 medical students, registrars and interns flow through the clinic.
“We take pride in our contribution to the education of rural GPs,” Dr Bruorton said.
“We take this opportunity to thank the Mount Gambier and Limestone Coast communities for your ongoing support, without which we would not be able to take part in educating future doctors.”
Hawkins @ Sturt Street was one of the first rural practices in SA to achieve full accreditation and has maintained this status since.
“We have always strived to maintain high standards,” Dr Bruorton said.
He said Hawkins was the only practice in the South East of South Australia that hosted registrars, interns and medical students, with the “absolute worthy focus on training the next generation.”
“Our service provision in coordination with Mount Gambier District Health Service makes it possible for a regional medical student to progress through the final two years of medical school, internship, residency years, advanced skills training (obstetrics, emergency, anaesthetics) and RACGP Registrar years to Fellowship within our region,” Dr Bruorton said.
“This is excellent for workforce retention given Adelaide is 500km away.”
The clinic has also recently opened a clinic branch near the Mount Gambier Hospital.
The clinic – which has a population catchment of 27,000 – has a practice manager, human resources manager, 18 reception/office staff, 27 GPs and eight nurses.
“It is a large employer in the region,” Dr Bruorton said.
Regular audits have been undertaken for common chronic disease management and doctors are benchmarked against the existing United Kingdom quality outcomes framework parameters to allow feedback to GPs, which includes performance against internationally accepted criteria.
This allows patients to be reassured with the respect to quality of care.
