RESET

In mid 2021 I returned from maternity leave with renewed enthusiasm to provide quality care, and a dream to achieve a better work-life balance and be present for my young children.

I recognised my passion for perinatal care, particularly caring for women in the antenatal and postnatal period, and returned with a plan to only see women and babies in this stage. I started to focus my own learnings on this, became an Internationally recognised Lactation Consultant and developed extra skills in tongue tie assessment and management. 

This plan was destabilised by the many challenges to our health system during COVID, and the nature of working in a general practice setting. Long standing patients wanting to resume care, and others I met along the way wanting to continue care. My preferred style of holistic healthcare, allowing long consultations to explore all aspects of a person's wellbeing and health, attracted a loyal following of patients with a wide range of complex conditions.

Unfortunately, my patient load has become unsustainable, time management has become impossible, and Medicare changes have made it challenging to provide this style of care in an affordable way. 

I’ve struggled to maintain my own wellbeing in the past year as I juggle an ever-increasing patient load, feeling like I haven’t been doing any role well.

Therefore, I have made the difficult decision to again limit my scope of practice, to ensure access for patients during challenging and vulnerable perinatal period. I hope to have the availability to assist with breastfeeding within days rather than weeks, as I know every single feed faced with pain or fussiness feels like an eternity and impacts on mental health. Rather than provide bandaid care, I want to provide more support to help families prepare for parenting, and for breastfeeding if that is their goal, with longer antenatal consultations. 

To do this, I can no longer provide general GP care. I thank the wonderful patients I have had the privilege to follow through for as long as 10 years. I appreciate it is not always easy to transition to new care providers I believe there may be benefits including including better access for timely review and fresh eyes on your own healthcare challenges.

My interests, and scope of practice may change in the future, but for the next 5 months at least, while I transition my youngest into school and reset my life, I am resetting my work and focusing on providing high quality care across the perinatal period.