General Medicine - Otago | Southern

Public Service, Internal Medicine

Description

General Medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and non-surgical management of diseases in adults, with over 4,000 admissions each year via the Emergency Department and Medical Admission Unit (MAU). This fully acute service manages patients who have multiple medical problems and are not specifically being managed by a specialty service.

General Medicine Specialists are the doctors who have trained in a wide discipline of internal medicine covering the entire body. Often people have more than one part of the body involved in an illness or the exact cause of symptoms is not clear. The General Medicine Specialist is an expert in diagnosing what is wrong and providing a comprehensive care for patients with complex health issues.

All acute stroke presentations to Dunedin Hospital are admitted to the Acute Stroke Unit (ASU) under General Medicine.

Outpatient clinics are currently delivered at Dunedin Hospital

Consultants

Note: Please note below that some people are not available at all locations.

Dr Yuki Aoyagi

Physician - Clinical Director

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Brendan Arnold

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Dion Astwood

Physician - Associate Clinical Director

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Wendy Busby

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Jeanette Cheung

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Shelley Collings

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Gordon Cupido

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Michael Furlong

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Frederiek Heenan-Vos

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Joel Papak

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Brendon Rae

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Owen Ratigan

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital
Dr Jill Wolfgang

Physician

Available at Dunedin Hospital

Referral Expectations

Hospital Admissions

If you suddenly become unwell and need to be admitted to hospital with a medical rather than a surgical problem, you will most likely be seen by the General Medicine Team. If your GP (General Practitioner) thinks you need to be admitted to hospital they will contact a doctor on the medical team to request admission. There is always a doctor from General Medicine on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Our Medical Admission Unit (MAU), located on the 6th floor of Dunedin Hospital, is a specialised unit to assess patients with an acute but stable condition for a timely diagnosis and management. You may be directed to MAU depending on your condition following a referral by your GP to our service.

General Medical Outpatient Clinic

If your GP wants advice about the diagnosis or management of an illness, they may refer you to this clinic. Your referral is given priority depending on the information in the referral letter. It is important that, if your condition worsens while waiting to be seen, you revisit your GP as we can see you sooner if your situation changes. Prior to this appointment you may have some investigations undertaken such as blood tests, ECG (recording of heartbeat) or x-rays. These are to help the doctor make a diagnosis or plan treatment when they see you initially.

The General Medicine Outpatient Clinic is also where you may be seen after you have been discharged from hospital to follow up any outstanding investigations or to see how you have improved or tolerated medications.