Carol Atmore, Clinical Lead, Urgent Care and Rural Health

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your journey in rural health, and what motivated you to step into the Clinical Lead role for urgent care and rural health?

I grew up in Whakatane in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, which was a much smaller town then it is now. I went to the local high school, and I love living in small communities. I spent much of my adult life living on the Coast Road, just north of Greymouth. When I was there, I worked first at Grey Hospital, then as a GP in Greymouth. As well as working as a GP, I had the privilege of being Chief Medical Officer at West Coast DHB from 2009-2014 – the first GP to be a full CMO. This role led me to be very aware of the pressures on rural health services, and the othering of non-urban places and services in the health scene in NZ in general back then.

When we moved to Dunedin a decade ago for family reasons, I had the opportunity to undertake a PhD, in which I focused on what was important for rural communities when they required hospital level care. Naturally, in the process of talking to rural communities in this process, people talked about the whole health system, including primary care, rather than the construct of hospital vs non-hospital that again, an urban frame takes. Following this, I was fortunate to be the Head of Department at the Department of General Practice and Rural Health at the Otago Medical School in Dunedin, working with Garry Nixon and the rural team.

When the Pae Ora Health reforms came in, I was very excited about the opportunities this might bring, and got inspired to return to health service leadership, rather than continuing in academia. Fortunately, soon after the clinical director role at WellSouth Primary Health Network came up, I was able to move into that role, as well as continuing to work as a GP. COVID came in full force a month later, and the next couple of years were pretty full on in that space! Thankfully, the team at WellSouth was great to work with. WellSouth is the PHO for Otago and Southland and has a large number of rural communities within the rohe. I have really enjoyed getting to know the rural general practice teams across the bottom of Te Wai Pounamu, and to understand their needs and dreams.

And why did I take on my current role as Clinical Lead for urgent care and rural health? I am excited to be involved in the implementation of the first Rural Health Strategy in Aotearoa, and to work at national level again. Rachel Pearce is cool, and I’m really loving working with her too. Also, I got so busy after finishing my PhD that I didn’t get the chance to disseminate a lot of the findings. So, I’m happy to be able to put in place some of the learnings from my PhD, too. We now live between Albert Town, where we have a bach (not a crib!), and Dunedin, so I get to spend more time in our beautiful rural spaces again.

From your perspective, what are the key challenges and opportunities facing rural urgent care right now, and how are you and your team working to address them?

Workforce and funding. Nothing new there! So, we are focusing on how to maximise the impact of clinicians’ efforts, using technology to support the face-to-face health care, thinking about the whole health care team, and to use the funding available wisely.

Is there a project, initiative, or early success you’re particularly excited about?

We have been working on providing some framing to help us bring to life two of the Rural Health Strategy priorities, being that services are available closer to home for rural communities, and that rural communities are supported to access services at a distance. We are hoping to share more about this in the new year. I have been really enjoying connecting with health leaders in the rural space since starting this role a couple of months ago, and I’m excited about the opportunities ahead of us, working together.

What would you like our members to know about your work or how they can connect with you moving forward?

The last few years of working in health in Aotearoa have strengthened my belief in the whakataukī, He waka eke noa – We are all in this together.  I’m always keen to hear from people on the ground about what’s happening, good and otherwise. So, if you want to connect with me, please drop me a one carol.atmore@tewhatuora.govt.nz