{"id":205,"date":"2025-10-09T16:34:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/?p=205"},"modified":"2025-10-21T08:58:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T22:58:42","slug":"ages-new-rural-and-regional-specialist-interest-group-deciphering-city-life-vs-country-calm-for-our-specialists-and-our-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/ages-new-rural-and-regional-specialist-interest-group-deciphering-city-life-vs-country-calm-for-our-specialists-and-our-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"AGES\u2019 new Rural and Regional Specialist Interest Group. Deciphering City Life vs. Country Calm for our specialists and our communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\t\t\tAGES’ new Rural and Regional Specialist Interest Group. Deciphering City Life vs. Country Calm for our specialists and our communities\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t

As a doctor who has spent their entire training in the thumping heart of a major city tertiary centre only to pack it up post fellowship for the “quiet” humming of a regional centre, I can confidently say each has its own rhythm – and both come with politics, clinical challenges, and a fierce loyalty to your barista.<\/p>\n

The city clearly has everything. Fancy hospitals with 3 different robots, colleagues on every floor, specialists in every nook, and highly skilled registrars just begging to hold a manipulator. Plus, the city has amazing food, 17 different types of milk for that latte, and the freedom of knowing your phone reception won’t drop out whilst you drive. But that convenience comes at a cost – literally. Private school fees will keep you at work a little longer, a studio apartment costs more than our acreage next to the beach, and don’t get me started on parking.<\/p>\n

Regional centres, though? A different world. You can actually see stars at night, and the local school principal knows your name, your kid’s name, and probably what you had for dinner. A busy day at the beach is 50 people. I haven’t driven through a traffic light to work in 7 years. The pace is slower, but the community is more connected. The Bunnings sausages come from just over the farm.\u00a0 Patients are chattier.\u00a0 Your consult room will fill with plant cuttings and fresh eggs.\u00a0 And yes, the hospital may only have one MRI machine – but it’s treated like royalty. The cost of living is arguably lower too but it’s the space<\/em> you can’t buy in the city. Swapping out an apartment in the city for a house with a yard, a lemon tree, and a driveway I don’t have to fight strangers for.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s not all roses. Access to specialists is patchy, some services are a long drive away (everything is “just” two hours down the road), and telehealth connections can sometimes require patients be out in the corner of the paddock to get a reliable video signal. Providing access to complex surgical procedures can also be challenging with an ever-changing junior workforce, a lower volume of complex procedures to train support staff, and tight schedules to conduct multidisciplinary surgery.<\/p>\n

Honestly, I love it in the region and I would never go back. I wanted my AGES fellowship and to get out of the town.\u00a0 But 7 years later, I still struggle to understand why don’t more doctors go regional? Maybe it’s the fear of personal and professional isolation, or that you have to do obstetrics, or there isn’t enough complexity. Maybe its worry about schools for the kids, maybe it’s research options, maybe it’s family, or maybe……it’s sushi. I don’t know. But if we’re honest, no-one seems to. In a society dedicated to world class gynaecological care, we still seem somewhat metropolitan centric.\u00a0 This year we are going to start asking how we bring that care to all Australian and New Zealanders.<\/p>\n

The new AGES Rural & Regional Special Interest Group (R&R Sig) is committed to identifying the attitudes, barriers and solutions for obstetricians and gynaecologists who practice significant operative gynaecology in the regions. It is widely recognised that one of the limitations to working in these communities is adequate exposure and training to sufficient gynaecology to feel confident to practice in these locations. The R&R Sig aims to bridge this gap by gathering data from our rural and regional members, expanding networking opportunities at upcoming meetings and increasing AGES presence at medical symposiums to address these unique regional healthcare challenges.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"escope-2025-10__author-aaron-budden-001\"\n\t\t\t\t

Dr Aaron Budden – BMed MMed, FRANZCOG (AGES), PhD
Gynaecologist and Minimally Invasive Surgeon
Saige Health & Wellness
Coffs Harbour<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"escope-2025-10__author-akshara-shyamsunder-001\"\n\t\t\t\t

Dr Akshara Shyamsunder
MBBS MRMed
AGES Board Trainee Representative.
The Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Aaron Budden introduces AGES\u2019 new Rural and Regional Special Interest Group, exploring the contrasts between city and country practice and strategies to support regional surgeons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/escope.ages.com.au\/october-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}