RDWA Annual Conference

100% OF OUR FUTURE
Managing children's health in country

The Annual RDWA Conference this year focused on managing today to fulfil our hopes for tomorrow. Our country kids make up 30% of our population but will be 100% of our future. This year’s conference was all about the health of country kids.

The program we put together covered many of the topics that you as rural GPs face on a daily basis. There were sessions on trauma management, pain management, immunisation, asthma, diabetes management, allergies, child trauma, behavioural development, ENT, burns management and otitis media.

It is well understood that the scope of practice required for rural GPs goes beyond what is required by your metro counterparts. To ensure that you have access to the latest information and clinical knowledge we sourced the best in their fields to present sessions at this year’s conference. This also reinforced the connections to the specialists in each of the areas that support services that you manage locally.

We also ran a half day pre-conference workshop for our doctors who are on their pathway to Fellowship focusing on musculoskeletal management.

We had a concurrent Family Program with activities for children of all ages and for parents and partners.

Our student program has become a regular feature and there was a full day of activities for 100 University students from the three rural clubs. As part of the student program this year RDWA was pleased to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to be involved in the Helping Hands project to build prosthetic hands.

It was also a special year as we celebrated with the doctors who have given 25 years of service to rural communities. This year we also recognised the doctors who have given 35 years or more service. The Long Service Medals Awards were presented by His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le, Governor of South Australia, as part of the RDWA Annual Conference Dinner. This black tie event was held on the Saturday night of the Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre.