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Newsletter October 2013

It seems hard to believe the 2013 academic year is drawing to a close. Our Sixth year students have

completed their final examinations. Everything seemed to go well, fingers crossed for when the results

are announced in a few weeks time. I’m sure everyone is busy as it’s the end of the year and we cer-

tainly have a number of events coming up. Everyone associated with the Wagga Wagga campus will

be invited to our End of Year Celebration and Awards Evening on Thursday 14th November. On 8th

November, our Sixth years will host a Graduation Dinner at the Magpies Nest restaurant. This is particular-

ly important since most of graduates will not be able to attend the Graduation Ball in Sydney.

Congratulations to Dr Alex Lim and his wife, Feng, on the arrival of their new son Gabriel on the 26th

September. Fingers crossed that the stars align and Alex and his family move to Wagga Wagga next

year as a fulltime Adolescent Psychiatrist and Academic Tutor at the Wagga Wagga campus.

Many of you will be following the debate here with respect to the Regional Medical School, I refer you

to an excellent article written by Benjamin Veness, president of the Medical Students’ Association, who

outlines the arguments against increasing Undergraduate medical places extremely well and writes

very convincingly that the way forward is to support the current Rural Clinical School model and ex-

pand Postgraduate training places in rural and regional Australia. To read this article please right click

on the link: New medical schools don’t stack up for rural Australia. Hopefully a common sense solution

will be negotiated.

Again, my thanks to everyone involved in the great success of UNSW Medicine in Wagga Wagga and

I hope to see you at our End of Year Celebration on the 14th November. John Preddy

STOP PRESS:

There will be a change of venue for the End of Year Celebration and Awards Evening due to the ongo-

ing WWBH building works in the grounds of Harvey House. It will now be held at the International Hotel

on the corner of the Sturt Highway and Lake Albert Road.

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Medicine

Year VI Exams 2013

Year VI students have temporarily dispersed to all parts of the world before re-

turning to the RCS to complete the 4 week UNSW PRINT program (Pre Internship)

starting Monday 28 October and finally completing the last of their UNSW Medicine

course requirements on Friday 22 November. We wish all students the best of luck

for their exam results.

The examinations went very well and the RCS is grateful to the examiners who

gave so much of their time and expertise.

We would like to sincerely thank:

Drs’ Michael Payne, Louis Baggio, Mike McCready, Steve Jancewicz,

Shane Curran, Nicole Ring, Mohamed Foda, Joe Suttie, Rakesh Seth, Adriaan Venter, Martin Jude, Kate Gupta,

Ed Darby, Chris Johnson, Steve Wood, Len Bruce, James Masson, Prof Tony O’Sullivan and Cindy Patterson from

WWBH Pharmacy.

Over the recent long weekend, around 100 medicine, nursing and allied health students from around the state in-

cluding Queensland, attended the 7th annual Rural Appreciation Weekend (RAW). This is a premier event on the

Rural Allied Health and Medicine Society (RAHMS) calendar. RAHMS is an organisation for students studying health

related courses at various universities.

RAW aims to expose students from all health-related backgrounds to a rural lifestyle through a weekend away in re-

gional NSW and is packed with speakers, workshops and networking activities. Students gain an insight into health

practise and workforce issues in rural areas.

Included in the program were camping at Wagga Wagga Beach camp site; a visit to the farm of the very hospita-

ble Dr Tom Heaney with a bonfire and dinner, workshops; a good ol’ fashion bush dance, disaster scenarios, and triv-

ia at the pub.

Wagga campus students, Julia Fattore, Francesca Garnett, Sofia Mason, Annalise Bagust and Sally Newton were all

RAW Crew members who had an enormous job putting the program in place. Thanks must go to the many organisa-

tions such as Coast City Country GP Training, HealthWorkforce Australia, National Rural Health Students Network,

RAHMS. University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and the Rural Clinical School for their support.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Dr Chris Mumme, Registrar, WWBH

In 2006, Chris arrived as a keen young Year IV student from Sydney campus. Sydney

was his home town. He stayed on at RCS Wagga Wagga completing his studies

here in 2008 and had settled in so easily that he completed his Internship and Resi-

dency at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. Following that, Chris took 12 months away

from Wagga to work in Albury Wodonga doing a mixed year of part time emergen-

cy work and… spending some quality time with a special girl based at the Albury

RCS campus.

2012 was a significant year, Chris was back at WWBH as an Anaesthetic Registrar,

an area in which he is pursuing a career. He completed his primary exam that year,

married that special girl, Trudi Beck (then an intern at WWBH) and competed in the Hawaiian Iron-

man event following a heavy training program. The event involved a 3.8km swim (no big deal as

Chris was a national champion swimmer in his teens) a 180km bike ride (he is also a very accomplished cyclist) con-

cluding with a 42.2 km run—an Olympic marathon. Chris finished with a time of 10 hours 22 minutes. To build towards

this peak, Chris had trained and competed in events at Port Macquarie in 2009, 2010 and 2011 as well as Lake Tau-

po, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011 As a student, Chris coached and played water polo with a local Wagga team

while also competing now and then in road cycling.

In April 2013, Chris and Trudi welcomed baby Eloise to their world, perhaps their greatest achievement. They’ve all

settled very well into family life, Eloise is a gentle, inquisitive baby who delights everyone she meets.

For both Trudi and Chris, the future is busy; they will soon move on to Canberra. Chris will undertake Anaesthetic

training at Canberra’s Calvary Hospital and the Canberra Hospital while Trudi will be busy with completing an O&G

diploma for 12 months then GP training in Canberra.

It’s always nice to have a happy ending, so here it is—Chris and Trudi hope to return to Wagga to settle permanent-

ly in just over 3 years time. Everyone at the Rural Clinical School campuses of Sydney, Wagga and Albury and all

those who have subsequently worked alongside them are thrilled by their successes so far and will be very happy to

see them return to Wagga in the future.

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Trudi and Chris with baby Eloise

RAW 2013 wagga wagga

# 2 UNSW RCS PMQ October 2013

# 2 UNSW RCS PMQ October 2013

Year VI RCS Grad Dinner: Friday, 8 November 2013 6.30pm

Magpies Nest, Old Narrandera Road

WAGGA WAGGA

Year VI RCS Awards Evening: Thursday, 14 November 2013 6.00pm

The International Hotel

Cnr Sturt Hwy and Lake Albert Road

WAGGA WAGGA

PLEASE NOTE: The International Hotel is offering a discounted priceof $119 for a King Premium room. For anyone

attending the Awards Evening and wanting to stay overnight, this is a great deal (room only).

Please mention UNSW when booking to receive this rate.

Update: Wednesday, 20 November 2013, RCS Harvey House,

Docker Street, Wagga Wagga

This Update will feature a medico-legal presentation delivered by:

Julie Brooke-Cowden

Claims & Advisory Services (East)

MDA National Insurance Pty Ltd

Student Exams 2013:

Year V Biomed 14 November 2013

Year IV MCQ 25 November 2013

ICE 26 November 2103

Dr Carl Henman is once again taking on the

mountains with his bike to help raise funds for

HeartKids NSW and Childhood Heart Disease.

From the 20th to the 24th November,

20 Riders will take up the challenge and ride the

NSW Snowy Mountains to help raise awareness

of CHD.

The goal is to raise awareness as well as much

needed funds to help Heartkids NSW. This non

government funded organisation works to pro-

vide family support, create awareness, lobby the

government and also fund research into the

causes of CHD. The riders will cover 680km with

9,000 metres of climbing.

Heartkids is a registered charity so if anyone

would like to help support this enthusiastic

doctor on his adventure, your donation would

be greatly appreciated—just check the website.