“Come And Taste Rural”

From Cooktown to the Whitsundays, Dr Hannah Trimble’s CV looks like a road map of North Queensland, tracking down the coast until Proserpine Hospital finally caught her heart.

With a passion for rural and remote health issues, Hannah is a proud product of the first intake of the JCU School of Medicine and completed her internship at Cairns Base Hospital in 2006.

After this she took a position as junior health officer in Atherton in 2007, followed by positions in Mareeba, Burdekin and Bowen.

Contemplating a career as either an emergency department or orthopaedic specialist, Hannah decided instead to pursue a future in rural health care when she met her husband in Proserpine in 2015.

“I realised that tertiary hospitals were not in my future, and I also thrived in my time in rural hospitals,” she explained.

“I love the challenge (of being a rural generalist) and not knowing what will come through the door and what we will have to deal with.

“There is great satisfaction in knowing that you and your team made a difference.

“This allows me to do the job I had once imagined as an emergency specialist in the location I want, and I think with more satisfaction”

Hannah now has two children with her husband and the family recently bought a farm in the area.

All her skills and experience have been leading towards her current role which is Acting Director of Medical Services at Proserpine Hospital.

“It is a real team here in Proserpine,” said Hannah.

“We respect and appreciate each other, and this is all staff, not just medical.

“When there is a very unwell patient there is just us and we really do have highly developed skills to deal with whatever comes through the door, sometimes for many hours and with far less resources until that patient is retrieved to more definitive care.”

Hannah has a message for anyone planning to study medicine.

“Come and taste rural!”

Dr Hannah Trimble, Acting Director of Medical Services at Proserpine Hospital. Photo supplied

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