Simon Quilty becomes the first consultant specialist appointed to the RDAA
THE first remotely based physician in the Northern Territory has just achieved another momentous first
Centralian Advocate
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THE first remotely based physician in the Northern Territory has just achieved another first — becoming the first consultant specialist appointed to the Rural Doctors Association of Australia.
Simon Quilty, who also chairs the RDAA’s Rural Specialists Group, has joined the board at a time when the RDAA is advocating strongly for more training opportunities for consultant specialists in rural and remote communities, and for enhanced measures to attract more consultant specialists to work in rural Australia.
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Dr Quilty is a senior staff specialist and director of physician training at Alice Springs Hospital.
He is also known for trail-blazing the establishment of specialist services in the Northern Territory.
Over seven years in Katherine, he developed a comprehensive acute care and outreach service and developed the local hospital as a remote training hub for rural generalist doctors and consultant specialists, demonstrating the opportunities for small hospitals to provide better healthcare, closer to home, in cost-effective ways.
RDAA president John Hall said the team was very excited to welcome Dr Quilty to the board. “We have felt for a long time that rural consultant specialists should be represented on our board and in RDAA’s advocacy work, given they are such an important part of the rural health workforce,” he said.
Dr Quilty said rural consultant specialists were a critical part of the rural medical workforce that was often overlooked in healthcare policy.