IWD: Striving for a system ‘where all people have access’

‘My job is to listen to the community because the answers are there.’
 
In a shanty town on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Dr Richelle Douglas was part of a team rolling out the human papillomavirus vaccine for the first time.
 
Raised in Papua New Guinea, Dr Douglas has worked in London, Ireland, Peru, and has lived in Mexico.
 
Now, she is the Medical Director of the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service in Western Australia – the largest and oldest Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in the state.
 
‘We’re really committed to providing excellence in healthcare because the only way you can close the gap is by being extraordinary, and I think that’s what we’re doing today,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘The community have been very kind and welcoming and I feel like I’m learning every day.
 
‘It’s been a real privilege to work here, and I’ve learned so much … my main interest is just improving health equity and access for everybody.’
 
That interest grew from Dr Douglas’ childhood in Papua New Guinea, where she witnessed a lot of poverty and inequity, and heavily influenced her decision to pursue a career in medicine.
 
Then, after finishing medical school, she set off abroad to live in Ireland for a year – an experience that would also help shape her life’s path.
 
‘There, it was particularly hard for women because they didn’t even have access to the contraceptive pill until more recently, and they didn’t have a very good cervical screening program,’ Dr Douglas said.
 
She returned to Perth to study obstetrics and gynaecology, before she travelled to Peru, via Mexico to work in a women’s hospital.
 
‘It was really confronting because there was no pain relief in labour, limited resources, women died in hospital,’ she said.
 
‘It was horrific.
 
‘I’ve always had a real interest in improving the health of women and children, improving access to healthcare delivery, because the whole of society does better if everybody has access to good quality healthcare.’
 
Upon her return to Australia, Dr Douglas studied to be a GP, eventually finding herself at Derbarl Yerrigan.
 
The Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation was established 50 years ago, with the aim of providing holistic and integrated primary healthcare services to Aboriginal people living in or visiting Perth.
 
And when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world in 2020, the organisation, and Dr Douglas, had a big challenge ahead.
 
‘I think the biggest thing we did was get through the COVID pandemic together, which was a real demonstration of how Aboriginal-led services can produce the best quality health outcomes for Aboriginal people,’ she said.
 
‘First Nations people were being decimated by COVID disproportionately to non-Indigenous peoples in other parts of the world, and we put together a pandemic plan.
 
‘Right from the beginning we introduced new infection control policies and procedures, we trained our staff, and what was amazing was pretty much all our staff would have met all the eligibility criteria to stay at home but chose to come to work.’
 
That pandemic plan would go on to save lives, keeping many communities safe in the unprecedented years ahead.
 
Dr Douglas will share the lessons she has learned in Perth, and across the world, when she speaks at the Western Australian stop of the RACGP’s International Women’s Day series.
 
Here, she will speak about the lifechanging impact that access to quality and timely healthcare can have for women, as well as the important of breaking down the barriers which once held women back.
 
‘My mother didn’t have the opportunity to finish high school and her daughter’s a doctor, so we’re definitely improving, and we can only keep going up,’ Dr Douglas said.
 
‘We need to ensure all women have access to good quality healthcare, and for my daughters in the future that they don’t have as many challenges as previous generations had.
 
‘In Australia, we are moving away from the more patriarchal society but there are still barriers for women, and we need to reduce those barriers for the next generation.’
 
Ultimately, Dr Douglas said she is striving for equal opportunities for everyone.
 
‘I think for everyone, it’s really important to achieve what they feel they can achieve, and gender shouldn’t be a barrier,’ she said.
 
‘Regardless of what gender, or colour, or race, or religion you are, we should have a society that’s inclusive, and accepting, and where all people have access to high quality health care.’
 
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #CountHerIn, with RACGP events being held across Australia and online on 7 March.
 
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