Marlene Buckler, MD, FACEP

In answer to an email from a colleague back in the USA:

Yes New Zealand is very beautiful indeed.  I have managed to explore some of the North Island on my weekends off and will use my vacation time to visit the South Island before returning to the USA in March.  They say the scenery is even more spectacular in the south, and that one needs 2 or 3 weeks to even begin to explore the wonders.  The people here are so friendly and welcoming one feels right at home.

 I attended a small conference here at the Wanganui Hospital yesterday on the subject of back pain.  "How boring this will be" thought I.  Boy, was I wrong.  The ED director (my boss), Dr. Athol Steward, expertly presented a facinating case on cauda equina syndrome, in a  patient who presented to our ER before I arrived here, and how the MRI was done a half hour after being ordered, with the patient being in our operating room ("Theatre", as they call it here) having surgery to relieve the pressure of the herniated disc on the cauda equina, within  hours of his arrival.

 The rest of the conference was taken up with a talk by one of our anesthetists (aneathesiologists, as we Americans call them) on non-surgical management of back pain, and then by a couple of excellent presentations by an illustrious spinal surgeon from Aukland, NZ by the name of Mr. Peter Robertson, (Surgical consultants here, as in Britain, are addressed as Mr. rather than as Dr.) 

 It was an entertaining and informative few hours, interrupted by a break for supper, where we all went into an adjoining room, ate a lovely buffet meal and mingled with the speakers and other attendees.  The caliber of information presented was every bit as good as anything I have ever witnessed anywhere.  And the thing that struck me most was the message and impression I got that these people really care about their patients and about the quality of medical and surgical care provided in NZ.  It seems to be a system that is not profit driven but puts the patient first. The ideal we all strive for, everywhere in emergency medicine.

 So here I am at a small hospital in a small city in a small country.  And yet it is a teaching hospital where I am respected as a "Consultant", where trauma patients get flown in by helicopter to our ER, where I am responsible for the teaching and guidance of residents (RMO's  Resident Medical Officers), where the backup is second to none and where I am appreciated for my skills and knowledge base.  If only the pay was better I just might consider staying here permanently.

 Thought you  might enjoy hearing a little about my adventures "downunder'.  I have much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day, as I'm sure you do as well.

 SO HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all.

 Marlene

Marlene Buckler, MD, FACEP
www.StayOutOfMyER.com