Paediatric CPR and regional anaesthesia techniques were a focus of an Emergency Medicine Education and Training (EMET) program hosted by Bendigo Health on Saturday.
Around 50 rural GPs attended emergency skills workshop, which provided practical training to improve emergency care in rural and regional areas.
Bendigo Health Emergency Department Deputy Director, Dr Simon Smith said as the hospital evolves, so too does the required skills of rural GPs.
“We’ve recently opened a dedicated paediatric hub at the hospital, so providing rural GPs with better paediatric skills will benefit the patient before they’re admitted here,” he said.
Dr Smith said improving regional anaesthesia techniques had better long-term outcomes for patients.
“Often patients in the more regional areas might require transfer to centres such as Bendigo when they’ve got a significant illness and rather than give them opioid medication, which can have some side effects, there are safer methods to get these patients to Bendigo ED in a more comfortable state,” he said.
The session also included training on how to read electrocardiograms to improve diagnosis of critical cardiac diseases.
Castlemaine GP Emily Girdwood said: “Castlemaine’s immunisation rate is relatively low so we are seeing sicker kids. Being up to date in our resuscitation techniques and looking after unwell children in really important.”
“On the other extreme we’ve got more people retiring and coming to Castlemaine so we need to make sure our managing of older unwell patients is up to date as well.”
It’s the fourth time the annual EMET program has been held in Bendigo. The training is partially funded through the EMET program. EMET is funded by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).