Vivian Slack-Smith and Chryl Massey from the Barwon River Medical Centre with Belinda Colless - Brewarrina Shire Council's Economic Development Officer 2008
Verena Doolabh wins the RACGP GP Registrar of the year award for 2008
The Barwon River Medical Centre in Brewarrina wins the Brewarrina Enterprise Alliance Business Award 2008
Ross and Hamish receive the Telstra Business Award 2008
Jenelle Hollman takes out the Ochre Staff Achievement Award for 2008, citing her team for their support
Company History
The Ochre Health Group had its genesis in 2002 when two practicing General Practitioners decided to take action to attract locums to rural towns.At the time, Dr Ross Lamplugh (MBBS Melbourne) a GP Anaesthetist and Dr Hamish Meldrum (MBChB Otago) a GP Obstetrician were both solo GPs in the rural township of Bourke in New South Wales. For a number of years the duo provided on-call Visiting Medical Officer services at the Bourke Hospital on a 1 in 3 roster and a greater amount of procedural cover in Obstetrics and Anaesthetics. Both doctors found working in Bourke as procedural GPs a fantastic job with great medicine and a supportive community. For them it was a privilege to experience the real Australian outback and practice as a true medical generalist. There were, however, challenges – including difficulty finding locums, delays in getting paid for hospital work, succession planning and the ever increasing red tape.
To overcome these challenges, Drs Lamplugh and Meldrum formed Australian Outback Locums in 2002. They believed that by looking after locum doctors properly and exposing them to better job satisfaction of working in a rural location they would want to stay. Later in 2002, Australian Outback Locums extended its focus to solving the chronic medical staffing problems in Brewarrina, a community of about 1,200 people located 95 km east of Bourke. The small rural community had 22 locums in two years and many gaps in staffing. Australian Outback Locums had almost immediate success in recruiting two doctors to a town that had only ever operated with one doctor. In 2003 Australian Outback Locums was awarded a tender to provide Visiting Medical Officer services in Bourke and the New South Wales’ community of Boggabri. Again the medical staffing of these towns grew under the company's management.
In 2006, Australian Outback Locums was renamed the Ochre Health Group. Ochre stands for Outback Coastal Health and REcruitment. Ochre is a pigment widely found in Australia and ranges from yellow to red and is the colour of the soil. The Ochre Health Group owns three companies that operate as separate and complementary business units.
The three companies are:
Ochre Health who manage the Hospital Service Contracts and the Medical Centres. Ochre Health has service contracts secured on a competitive tender basis in seven locations to provide services in New South Wales and Queensland. It has offices in both Hobart (Finance and Payroll) and Sydney (Clinical Services).
The locations of the Ochre Health Medical Centres are:
• Boggabri
• Bourke
• Brewarrina
• Collarenebri
• Coonamble
• Cunnamulla
• Lightning Ridge
Australian Coastal Health operates a Health Centre from which General Practitioners and other health professional manage their own practices. The location that Australian Coastal Health operates its Medical Centre from is:
• Tea Gardens
Ochre Recruitment does medical placements and is active in the permanent and locum placement business in both Australia and New Zealand. To find out more go to Ochre Recruitment’s website by clicking here.