OUTREACH services are helping paediatrician Dr Tim Walsh keep in touch with the community he loves. While the outreach services help people to access specialist care close to home, they’re also good for the doctor.
Based primarily at West Gippsland Healthcare Group at Warragul, Dr Walsh provides outreach services to Gippsland Southern Health Service’s children’s diabetes clinic, along with a fortnightly general paediatric program.
“I love my work and enjoy outreach work,” he says. “I think I’m very lucky to have landed here.”
Originally from Melbourne, Dr Walsh did the bulk of his training in Gippsland as a medical student and was part of the inaugural cohort of the Monash Rural End-to-End Program, graduating in 2011. This included rotations in Gippsland, where he met his wife Tiffany from Inverloch.
Dr Walsh completed his paediatric training at Royal Children’s and Monash hospitals and completed his Advanced Training in Paediatrics in Gippsland with 12-month terms at both Warragul and Traralgon.
“I decided that’s where I want to be,” he said. “I wanted to stay in Gippsland to give back to the community.”
One of his mentors, Dr Michael Nowotny, had conducted outreach services to Leongatha for many years. “Around the time I started as a consultant in October 2022, he was moving away from clinical practice,” Dr Walsh said. “There was a big need for service coverage in South Gippsland, and I was coming along at the right time. It coincided with my desire to do outreach services and give back to the communities that had supported me.”
He enjoys being part of GSHS’s multi-disciplinary children’s diabetes team, working alongside a diabetes educator, social worker and dietitian.
“I’ve always been interested in helping children with type one diabetes, and Credentialled Diabetes Educator Andrea Curtis and the team had such a well-respected, collaborative service already in place that it was just a dream to join. I was pleased to be able to continue the work started by Dr Nowotny. To be part of that process and to help people manage their chronic condition is a privilege.”
Dr Walsh also has a general paediatric clinic every second Tuesday at GSHS.
“I get a lot of feedback from families around the area who are so pleased to have a service that is closer to home because it means they don’t have to travel long distances,” he said. “Many families are resource-limited and may not have physical means to get to appointments and could miss out on care if outreach services weren’t in place.”
Dr Walsh is a past recipient of a Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (RWAV) grant to continue the outreach services and is also supported by Monash Rural Health, Gippsland.
Dr Walsh is also the Children’s Health Clinic Lead with Monash Rural Health, Gippsland and is directly responsible for medical students on clinical placements in Warragul, Traralgon and Sale and involved with students on their GP rotations in South Gippsland.
“They have the opportunity when they do their GP placements to spend time with specialists such as myself to see the challenges and benefits of outreach provision.”
Dr Walsh has lived in the area for the past two years. “It’s home,” he says. “The community is really strong, and that’s one of the real benefits of living in Gippsland.
“Having that experience as a medical student in those rural localities had a real impact on me.”
