Dr Jane Neyland sits on a bench in a leafy-green local park, her three-month-old daughter comfortably cradled in her arms. Nearby her young son plays happily. It’s midday on a Wednesday and the doctor has a full day of appointments, but not the ones you’d expect: a toddler dance class, a playdate at the park and a school pick-up.

The long serving Robinvale GP is on maternity leave with her third child. It’s a newfound foray after a long battle with work/life balance and a vastly different - yet very welcomed - pace than the rural doctor is accustomed to.

“With my second child,” Dr Neyland explains, “I did go back to work initially when he was two-weeks-old and then later on I went back when he was four-months-old.”

It’s the result of a collaboration that has changed the trajectory of her career and ignited a first of its kind health care model for RFDS Victoria.

It was one year ago, on 1 May 2023, that RFDS Victoria purchased the Robinvale District Medical Centre (RDMC) after a two-year consultative process.

Prior to the acquisition Dr Neyland was the clinic’s owner and sole GP.

By 2021 Dr Neyland was close to being burnt out.

Unlike an urban-based GP, Dr Neyland’s responsibilities stretched far beyond the consultation room. The sheer remoteness of Robinvale – located six hundred kilometres from Melbourne in the state’s north-west – meant not only was Dr Neyland the sole GP, but she was also the computer software technician during a server crash, administrator, and in a particular instance involving a burst pipe flooding her clinic, a removalist.

This was all to the backdrop of COVID-19.

“Most of the world stopped but the health service definitely didn’t stop. We were struggling to have stable doctors in the community.

"I thought, I can’t keep going on like this, as a mum and a wife and a business owner, and so, I thought, something has got to change."

Exhausted and uncertain of what the future would hold, it was at this point, in late 2021, Dr Neyland reached out to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

“It started out as a conversation,” Dr Neyland reveals of the Flying Doctor’s acquisition. “I just thought RFDS would be a good fit for the community.”

“Robinvale is a struggling community in many different aspects, and it was good to have someone who has a purpose about providing services in rural and remote areas and that’s their business model, that’s their core work – I thought it would be a really good fit.”

Prior to acquiring the clinic, RFDS Victoria was already well established within the Robinvale community, offering existing Rural Women's GP, speech therapy and telehealth services.

It had all the makings of a successful service.

“They already had a part-time GP and I thought, well, if they have a part-time GP and I would like to be a part-time GP – if we join forces, we could make a full-time service which would help the community.”

Looking back, Dr Neyland says the two-year process of conversations, “feels like a bit of a blur now”.

The main priority for herself and RFDS, she says, was ensuring a sustainable outcome for Robinvale patients.

“It was about what RFDS can offer to the community, trying to work out the logistics. Both RFDS and I had the shared goal of ensuring continued doctor retention."

Since the 1 May takeover, Dr Neyland has worked as a part-time GP at the clinic, taking on the position of Clinical Lead with Flying Doctor Health Group.

The change has had a profound impact on the Robinvale doctor, both as a practitioner and a parent.  

“Since the Royal Flying Doctor Service have come on board, for me, what’s happened is I’ve been able to work part time and not feel guilty because there have been other doctors there at the clinic which has been great for me."

“It’s handy for me to have other clinicians coming in so that I can gain some comradery, if I have a little bit of advice that I just want to talk to, or a difficult diagnosis that I wanted to chat with someone about, it’s handy to have people coming in on a regular basis so that I can help improve my knowledge and also hopefully I can help improve their knowledge as well.

“It’s great for that."

“On a personal level it’s been good because I’ve had time to spend with my kids and I’m not so much a ‘grumpy mum’ anymore. A little bit sometimes,” she jokes. “But not so much!”

“I’m able to actually do the mum things which is what I really like to do with my kids.”

The sustainable model implemented by the collaboration has also ensured the rural community can continue to be serviced by a passionate and locally based GP. 

“It’s just a lot smoother and I have my weekends back now which is great.

"It means that I will be working as a doctor for a lot longer because I won’t be burnt out.”

Robinvale is a bordertown situated along the southern bank of the mighty Murray River. It’s a diverse community with unique, varying, and complex health needs.

“A lot of services don’t reach Robinvale, so we don’t get provided a lot of services either,” Dr Neyland explains.

“Everyone thinks, Victoria – small state – so they automatically think ‘well surely it’s not that far to get to Melbourne, to get metro’, but it is”.

“It’s a small town that is an hour by road to the closest regional hospital, but from the closest tertiary hospital it’s five to six hours by road and public transport services are fairly limited. It would take you a long time to get to Melbourne.”

“Robinvale has a lot of chronic diseases and multiculturalism with our population.

"We have a significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community; we have a significant Polynesian community and we also have a significant population from Southeast Asia.

"Each of those cultures comes with their own health concerns.

“We have a high prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes, renal disease, heart disease. We also have with a lot of culturally and linguistically diverse populations, we have people who don’t always understand their disease or the treatment that’s available for it or where to access the treatment."

“There’s a lot of barriers to cross to get people sufficient services and to be able to get good health outcomes for people.”

Having access to a regular doctor, Dr Neyland says, is an important piece of the puzzle in ensuring rural Victorians access timely and informed care.

This is an important aim of RFDS, with Flying Doctor Health Group actively recruiting for additional GPs to provide consistency.

“I do find that a lot of people do like seeing the same doctor and they will often wait to build up a rapport before they divulge some personal information or concerns about their health that they didn’t really want to give to someone they don’t have a good connection with.

"Whether that’s someone coming in on a regular basis who they see every month or so or whether it’s someone who is living in the same community, people really appreciate – and they’ve said this – they said they don’t want to be explaining their whole story again and again and again to different people.

“They really want to see the same person again and again – the same doctor. Someone they’ve developed that relationship and trust with.”

A year on, the medical clinic is a vibrant hub where community members of all ages can access a suite of primary health services as part of Flying Doctor Health Group.

Experienced nurses provide services including vaccinations, wound care and chronic disease management, while the clinic’s cohort of regular visiting GPs specialise in skin cancer, women’s health, eating disorders, aged care, sexual and reproductive health, chronic disease care and diabetes.

Flying Doctor Health Group continues to provide speech therapy and, in the car park, a RFDS branded van can be seen transporting eligible clients to and from appointments as part of Flying Doctor Community Transport, a recent and very popular addition to the community.

It’s a holistic approach to primary health care and the impact is tangible.

“To have the RFDS on board, it’s been great for the community,” Dr Neyland shares.

“It’s been great for their morale, it’s been great for their health – and it’s not just about the health clinic it’s also about the speech services that are offered, it’s also about the transport service offered,” Dr Neyland says of the clinic’s approach to health care delivery.