Teaching Practices

Pahiatua Medical Centre
cnr Main & Centre Sts, Pahiatua
06 376 8901
Email: ad.keall@clear.net.nz

Teachers: Delamy Keall and Sam Wilson

Delamy Keall was born on a dairy farm and raised on a sheep farm.  She can trace her Maori whakapapa back though Taranaki iwi.  After graduating from Auckland Medical School in 1989 she lived in cities for ten years but it was inevitable she would return to her rural roots.  She has worked at Pahiatua Medical Centre for eight years.  She happily raises her four children and works part time in her practice.  Although she sees quite a lot of gynaecology, her main interests are palliative care and elderhealth.  She and her husband, Andrew, are on a learning journey with their children enjoying music, dance, art and the great outdoors.

Sam Wilson was born and raised in England.  He qualified in Leeds and after a vocational training scheme in Wakefield, worked for three years in general practice in inner city Coventry.  This was followed by three years as a government medical officer in Brunei, after which he came to New Zealand.  He has practiced since 1988 in the Woodville/Pahiatua area.  He is a MCNZ reviewer and a College Primex examiner.  He is married with four children, the youngest at school in Woodville.  He strongly believes in multiculturalism and has a passion for Asian food as well as British pub food!  Relaxation pursuits include tramping, chopping firewood and watching his son play soccer.

The Practice

Pahiatua Medical Centre is the only medical practice in Pahiatua and has 6000 enrolled patients. The practice also serves Eketahuna twenty minutes south, and Woodville ten minutes north, with regular outreach clinics. Their nursing and administration teams are experienced and capable, and ready to help registrars make the transition into general practice.   The patients enjoy the trainee interns that visit throughout the year and would receive a registrar warmly.   They use MedTech 32 with broadband access for outlying clinics.

Their patients are mainly polite, stoic folk with genuine problems.  The practice provides free palliative care. They can use hospital level care beds at the local rest home for palliative care or GP admissions.  They offer home visits for those who cannot travel to the surgery.  Sexual health services are free for youth.  All the GPs enjoy minor surgery and see a variety of accidents and emergencies. Their only after hours work is being on call for PRIME, the police, rest home and palliative care patients.  This is not onerous.

They can offer a warm three-bedroom house for accommodation.  It is a very short walk from the medical centre - close enough to pop home for lunch each day!   They are situated 35 mins from Palmerston North, two hours from Wellington and three hours from Mt Ruapehu.  Their region offers fantastic trout fishing and tramping opportunities. See www.tararua.com

Their GPs meet weekly for peer review.  They join with other GPs in the Tararua region monthly for a Balint group or peer review meeting.  They are committed to sharing their knowledge with others and look forward to learning from registrars.

Registrar timetable

Consulting hours are from 8.30 am to 12 pm then 2 pm to 5 pm.  The lunch break is long enough to allow for meetings, paper work and travel to clinics.  There would be minimal after hours commitment but they would like registrars to join them for the occasional evening CME or peer review meeting.

Profile updated 4. September 2009