Kenneth Corbett

• The current post is based in Gympie, offering solely skin cancer services to the local population. This is a comprehensive service with a regular cohort of patients, as well as receiving referrals from my colleagues in Primary Care. Procedural insurance is with Avant and I am an accredited skin cancer doctor with the Skin Cancer College of Australasia (SCCA).
• I also offer rural skin cancer services to remote and regional Queensland through a company called The Skin Cancer Doctor. With them, I visit, on a regular basis and for a week at a time, rural and remote areas of Queensland to provide skin cancer services to the local communities.
• I am still involved with Griffiths University in the capacity as an examiner for medical students.
• I am about to start(September 2024) the Global Health and Humanitarian Medicine course. This is a 10 month on line based course organised by Medicin San Frontieres, with the clinical goal of being able to provide a skill base for working in low resource environments and, educationally, to sit the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

This was a full time-10 sessions per week- position in a 3 doctor practice with 50% of my time in General Practice and 50% of the time in skin cancer medicine and surgery. I have post graduate qualifications to Diploma(now titled Advanced Certificate) level through the Skin Cancer College of Australasia(SCCA), in both Dermatoscopy and Skin Cancer Medicine and Surgery and offered a full range of services, from dermatoscopic-based examinations to skin excision with flaps and skin grafts. I have procedural insurance with Avant.

I am a member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Integrated into my clinical role, I taught medical students from Griffith University within Primary Care on a regular basis. I also held the title of Senior Lecturer at Griffiths University.

This was a semi rural medical practice in which I worked full time. I was also involved in medical student teaching at this time and worked one day per week as an orthopaedic assistant at Noosa Hospital. I was chairman of the Noosa GP After Hours group, based at Noosa Hospital, a 35 doctor co-op offering after hours GP services. I was also on the Medical Advisory Committee at both Noosa Hospital and Eden Rehab hospital in Cooroy.In July/August 2006 I was employed by the Royal Flying Doctors Service, located in Mount Isa; providing Emergency and General Practice care to the 30,000 population in the 500,000km2 of North West Queensland.

• This was a new hospital-established 1998- that serves the Noosa area at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
• It offers a general medical, surgical and orthopaedic in-patient service as well as outpatient services in other specialties.
• One doctor per shift staffed the Emergency department.
• On average 25-30 category 1-3 patients were seen per day.
• This job enabled me to update my skills in areas such as airway management and ventilation, coordinating a team approach to cardiac arrests and other medical emergencies, and manipulation of fractures and dislocations.
• As in any other area of medicine the traditional skills of history taking, clinical examination, investigation, and implementation of a management plan must be utilized and effective communication created between doctor and patient.
• Between September 2003 and March 2005 I worked here full time, and then part time till 2007.
• I was fully accredited in ALS (Advanced Life Support) and APLS (Advanced Paediatric Life Support).

March 2005-March 2006 General Practitioner Coolum Beach 7 Day Medical Practice, Birtwill St, Coolum, Queensland. Also worked in Emergency at this time.

For 2 weeks during late January till mid February 2005 I was ‘employed’ on a voluntary basis by an Indonesian charity called World Harvest to work in tsunami affected Banda Aceh and the surrounding area. I worked alongside 3 nurses from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland in providing primary health care to residents in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps around the city. From a professional perspective this gave me new insight into organizational aspects of humanitarian relief, working without the usual support mechanisms taken for granted in developed countries, and working in adverse conditions.

In July 2002 my wife (also a GP) and I moved to Agnes Water in Queensland, a rural east coast town about 130km north of Bundaberg, the site of the nearest hospital. Here we set about as solo practitioners in the town with the aim of developing a new practice.

This was a challenge in that not only did we have to familiarise ourselves with the very different primary health care system of Australia but also to adapt to the practice of medicine in a rural and relatively remote location.

This involved a significant amount of both clinical and managerial input and learning. After 15 months in the job we did, I believe, establish both quality emergency and routine care, this being reflected in the achievement of General Practice Accreditation, a benchmark of quality practice.

We offered a full range of urgent and non-urgent medical services including pre-hospital thrombolysis. Given the rural setting a large amount of the clinical workload was dealt with locally and we offered a 24 hour a day service.

Additionally, membership of the FRACGP was gained at this time and I was a member of the management committee of the Wide Bay Division of General Practice.

General Practice Registrar at Helensburgh Medical Centre, Helensburgh, Scotland. This was a six partner practice with a list of 8,500 patients in a semi rural setting. The principals in this practice excelled in creating an environment of critical thinking. The fruition of this was a Distinction in the Royal College of General Practitioners exam in December 2001.

From February 2002-June 2002 I did General Practice locum in various practices in the west of Scotland before departing for Australia.

Senior House Officer in Paediatrics, the Ayr Hospital, Ayr. This was a chance to diverge and gain experience with kids. There was no on site senior cover at this hospital so initial management was an autonomous affair.

Senior House Officer in Accident & Emergency Medicine, the Ayr Hospital, Ayr, Scotland. This was a smaller Emergency Department than previously experienced but with proportionally greater responsibility. However it provided an excellent opportunity to consolidate and expand my interest in Acute Medicine. I qualified as an Instructor in Advanced Life Support, November 2000 (UK Resuscitation Council).

Principal House Officer in General Medicine at Bundaberg Base Hospital, Queensland. This position stimulated a lasting interest in Internal Medicine and required an expansion of autonomy, theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Feeling confident dealing with both critically ill patients in a CCU setting and in chronic disease management were of fundamental importance.

Senior House Officer in Accident & Emergency Medicine at Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow. This busy inner city department saw up to 70,000 patients per year and had an excellent reputation for teaching and clinical exposure for junior doctors. The ability to differentiate between well and unwell patients and to develop sound decision making skills were invaluable lessons in this post. Gained Advanced Trauma Life Support Certificate (EMST equivalent) in November 1997.

• Rotations of Gastroenterology, Geriatrics and Stroke Medicine, Endocrinology and Acute Medicine.

• Surgical rotations included Colorectal, Hepatobiliary, Urology and Acute Surgical Receiving.