Discover New Scientific Frontiers: Global Medical Staffing Needs Doctors to Work in the Australian Outback.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2003

Global Medical Staffing is looking for doctors to help indigenous Aboriginal natives in the Australian outback. The company, in business since 1990, has helped place thousands of doctors in underserved communities in New Zealand, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and Australia, and is currently recruiting.

Australia has been at the top of Jeanne Wiebenga's "must see" list and when the opportunity arose to work as "locum tenens" or a temporary substitute at the public hospital in Cairns, she jumped. She's an obstetrics and gynecology doctor for the Cairns Women's Health Department and recently flew 350 miles to see patients in two small Aboriginal villages along the coast of Carpentaria.

"The scenery is fantastic and the work has proved to be very satisfying," said Wiebenga. Queensland is rich in natural beauty with rain forests, dry deserts, white sandy beaches and rivers, and wombats, wallabies, wallaroos, pademelons, bettongs, kangaroos, lizards, crocodiles and snakes. With a light call schedule, she's been able to see quite a bit of the area including a trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Wiebenga is one of 1,000 doctors from Canada, the United States, South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom filling in underserved positions in Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. "There were many reasons for our decision to come, chief among them the desire to travel and to educate our three children about the world outside our own small town in British Columbia," said Eugene Leduc, M.D. "It's been a very rewarding experience, both professionally and personally."

Alan Lakomski, GMS chief operating officer, said they are looking for three primary groups of doctors: "recent graduates looking for international medical adventure before settling into practice, mid-career practitioners seeking a sabbatical from their practice, and those near retirement who want to travel and share their medical skills with the world."

GMS is an international placement group that specializes in recruiting physicians to work in temporary and permanent assignments. They coordinate the logistics and regulatory requirements involved. A complete job listing is available online at www.gmedical.com, or call toll-free 800-760-3174, fax [phone].