Sandpiper Australia was formed as a collaboration between rural clinicians with a vested interested in prehospital emergency care in their communities. Their experience includes leadership of national bodies involved in rural health care, provision of prehospital care with ambulance, retrieval services and within rural communities in Australia; military and austere medicine experience in the UK, combat zones and Australia, as well as responding to State emergencies including recent bushfires and COVID19.
These passionate clinicians are keen to harness colleagues with an interest in prehospital care to help establish a national rural responder network.
Meet the team…
Dr Tim Leeuwenburg (Chair)
Based on Kangaroo Island, SA, Tim has been an active member of the South Australian Rural Emergency Responder Network since 2008, with ongoing experience as a Rural Generalist providing primary care and anaesthesia services to rural Australia. He is a credentialled specialist in prehospital and retrieval medicine in QLD and the NT.
He is an active educator in the domains of airway management, trauma and rural medicine, with experience in simulation and debriefing. Tim is involved in medical education, acting as a Course Director for ETMcourse, EMST and RERN updates, as well as invited Faculty for the Critically Ill Airway course, smaccAIRWAY, Safe Airway Society workshops etc. Most recently a co-author of the consensus guidelines for airway management of COVID19 patients.
Tim teaches on the ACRRM Prehospital & Emergency Care (PHEC) course as well as other bespoke prehospital courses and retrieval term induction programs.
Twitter @kangaroobeach
Dr Scott Lewis (Secretary & Treasurer)
Scott is also an active member of the SA RERN scheme and was a Rural Generalist in solo practice in Wudinna, SA for 15 years, before re-locating to the Adelaide Hills. He has held positions as a former President of the Rural Doctors Association of SA, convenor of airway workshops for the RDASA Masterclass and is an APLS instructor. Scott teach on the ACRRM PHEC course and other prehospital courses.
He is a passionate pilot and has an active interest in motorsport medicine.
Twitter @RuralHealthSA
Dr Claire Arundell
Dr Claire Arundell is a Rural Generalist Anaesthetist from country Victoria. She works in many primary care and hospital settings, and not infrequently provides pre-hospital care in the communities she works in.
Outside of her clinical work, Claire has many years of practical experience in rural health advocacy roles for various state and national organisations. Current roles include being a board member for the Rural Doctors Association of Victoria (RDAV), the Victorian representative to the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine‘s (ACRRM) College Council, and sits on Safer Care Victoria’s (SCV’s) Victorian Medical Council.
She is passionate about promoting rural health opportunities to future health professionals and doing what she can to ensure equity of health access.
Claire is an active member of the community, clocking up over 10 years of service with the CFA
Dr John Hall
Current President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia with significant experience in medicopolitics and media. He continues to provide obstetric and emergency locums across rural Australia and is a firm believer in the notion of a national rural responder network for Australia.
Twitter @jhrural
Mr Sean Mutchmor
Sean is the General Manager of Quality & Safety at the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM).
Sean is a highly capable educator and clinician who has specialised in Quality & Safety for many years; bridging clinical quality improvement with contemporary education development systems. He has spent the last 15 years working in this realm at the Executive Director and Executive Manager level in safety & quality, clinical governance and professional development roles with state and provincial ambulance services, emergency retrieval services, and has now been with ACRRM for three years.
Sean has over twenty years experience as a former Critical Care Flight Paramedic and has previously been the Director of Clinical Services for two university paramedic faculties. Additionally, he has consulted with the Australian Federal Police, numerous medical schools and many other entities on clinical governance, clinical care and clinical education. He holds post graduate qualifications in Prehospital Critical Care and is soon to complete a Master’s in Health Service Management with a specialisation in Safety and Quality.
Sean is the originator of the ACRRM PHEC course and keen to support the role of rural generalists in providing prehospital and immediate care to their communities.
Twitter @SeanMutchmor
Dr Kate Manderson
Dr Kate Manderson is a GP on the South Coast of NSW. Kate started her medical career as a graduate of the University of Tasmania, where she was a founding member of the Rural Medical Society. After early work in clinical practice in Northern Tasmania, Kate moved to spent a number of years working in remote primary care at sea for the Royal Australian Navy, before translating those experiences to General Practice in the coastal villages of the Shoalhaven.
Kate is particularly passionate about supporting the provision of comprehensive community-based care to the vulnerable and disadvantaged populations of regional Australia. She does this through the work of her own four practices, providing education and training for GPs in Training, and health leadership roles for her community as Board Chair of Lifeline South Coast and a Director of Grand Pacific Health providing primary care and mental health services across rural NSW.
Kate also has roles in support of the ADF, CASA and the ATSB in aerospace medicine and aviation safety.
Most recently Kate has developed first-hand experience of the challenges of providing complex health needs for people in isolated communities after the catastrophic bushfires in summer 2019-20, the disruption to health services due to the coronavirus pandemic, and her own daughter being diagnosed with a life-changing genetic disease.
The combined effect of Kate’s lived experience of receiving, providing and managing health care in rural communities has embedded in her heart and soul the unparalleled value of the role of the rural GP in supporting the health of their community.
Dr Edi Albert
Dr Edi Albert is a rural and remote generalist and program director of the Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments Program at the University of Tasmania. Over the past decade he has had numerous roles including Medical Officer with RFDS Western Operations, Antarctic Medical Practitioner with the Australian Antarctic Division, rural generalist at Perisher Ski Resort as well locums all across remote Australia. When not working he can be found climbing, hiking, skiing, kayaking and sailing. Edi is currently a part time retrieval consultant with the Central Australian Retrieval Service in the NT.