Outreach to Nguiu clinic

One beautiful sunny day, I went to Nguiu for outreach clinic.

I sat on the ferry reading Joe Cinque's Consolation, which was an intriguing tale of love, death and psychosis. I kept reading till I felt like I was going to vomit from seasickness, then I went to sleep. When I woke up the ferry was perfectly still, and when I looked out the window there was a small boat speeding away from the ferry. We are sinking! was first my first thought. But no, a group of unhappy youths had burnt down the jetty on the island and the little boat was our only way to land.

Once on the beach, there seemed to be not much other than red sand and coconut trees. I was picked up by the clinic in a brand new white government-issued 4WD which looked really quite out of place, and drove a few hundred metres down the road to the dialysis centre.

My consulting room consisted of a bed, a desk with broken drawers and two broken chairs (everyone sat on the bed). The clinic assistant drove off in the 4WD to "round up" the patients from all their houses, and soon there was a queue outside my door.

It was much like any other clinic in the NT, but the Tiwi islanders are really quite sweet (always smiling, they are pretty much my favourite group of patients!). I always have the most hilarious conversations with patients in clinic, for example:

Patient: Doctor, doctor, I need you to help me.
Me: What can I do to help you?
Patient, opening mouth real wide: Can you take out this rotten tooth? It's really annoying me.
Me: I'm the kidney doctor, not the dentist.
Patient: That's ok, you look like a nice one, take it out anyway!

Patient: Doctor, now I'm on this dialysis thing, it's really affecting my life, you know.
Me: Yes, I understand it's hard to come to dialysis three times a week.
Patient: No, no, I like coming to dialysis, all my friends are here.
Me: What's bothering you then?
Patient: Well, I've got to wear shoes... I don't like wearing shoes.
Me: Well, you've got diabetes and the feeling in your feet is not so good.
Patient: Oh, but I like going walking in the mangroves without shoes.
Me: If you go walking without your shoes you might cut your feet and it might get infected.
Patient, reluctantly: Ok, I'll put my shoes on once wet season comes.
Me: What's the difference between dry and wet season for shoes??
Patient: Well I don't want to die from soil sickness (meliodosis)

(See, even patients have their priorities straight).

After we saw all the dialysis and transplant patients, we had lunch on the verandah, looking out to the sea. The dialysis centre is in a really beautiful spot, right on top of a cliff, looking out to Melville island.

In the afternoon we went to the local health clinic for our other clinic, but no-one knew we were coming so it was cancelled. We ended up roaming down the street to the art centre where I bought a Tiwi bird carved out of wood and painted using pigments from the earth. Then I went back on the ferry and read some more Joe Cinque.

It was such a relaxed day, if only I could go on outreach more often....

 The Indigenous food pyramid!