General Medicine

General Medicine involves the assessment and management of patients with complex or undifferentiated medical problems. Often diagnosis and management occur in collaboration with one or more sub-specialty teams.

The General Medicine service at the RAH has the largest number of inpatients (approximately 150) of all Australasian hospitals, and is run by 16 part-time consultants.

General Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital consists of four Medical Units, all within the Internal Medicine Service.

They are:

• Medical 1 Unit
• Medical 2 Unit
• Medical 3 Unit
• Medical 4 Unit

These Units provide continuous cover for General Medicine to the RAH on a 1:4 take roster. Individual junior medical staff participate in 1:6 take roster.

Major service activities are:

• Referrals for admission/assessment in the Emergency Department (the source of 96% of admissions)
• Acute inpatient service
• Cross-service consultations
• Outpatient service
• Medical Emergency/Resuscitation Team

The General Medicine Take team consists of one consultant, three RMOs and two interns providing medical cover to inpatients and the Emergency Department 24 hours a day.

Location

There are approximately 120 dedicated general medical beds covered by these units. The beds are located on four wards Q8, R8, R7 and S7 with some shared beds on S8. These wards are situated on Levels 7 and 8 in the North Wing of the Hospital. At any one time the service will have 20 or more patients in monitored and intensive care beds in other locations.

Outpatient Clinics

The service runs a busy Medical Outpatient Department on every weekday. This is located on Level 8 in the Outpatient Block. Clinic times are:

Bookings for Outpatient Clinics require either a referral from a general practitioner or from the Emergency Department. Every attempt is made to review urgent patients within 48 hours.

Contact numbers for outpatient bookings:

Phone:	+61 8 8222 5915
Fax:	+61 8 8222 2876

Training in Internal Medicine

The service has many opportunities for basic and advanced training. Opportunities to join these training programs are advertised nationally and via the South Australian Postgraduate Medical Education Association (www.sapmea.asn.au). The General Medical Units are heavily involved in training programs for physicians including preparation for the FRACP examination and advanced training.

Enquiries about training:

Phone:	+61 8 8222 5684
	Email

Areas of Research

The Clinical Pharmacology Unit and General Medicine are jointly involved in drug therapeutics, the management of hypertension, autonomic function studies, carbon credit trading and the management of poisoning.

Medical 1

Diabetes management and gastric motility.

Medical 2

Upper airways clinical research (Rhinometrica).

Medical 3 & 4

Medical 3 and 4 are associated with the University of Adelaide Department of Clinical Pharmacology. Some consultant staff are members of the University Department. Research into rational drug use and clinical quality improvement is a particular focus on these units.

General Medical Consultant Staff and office contact numbers: