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“You have to turn up” - Celebrating Dr Patrick Oakley’s commitment to Outreach
07th May 2026
By Emma Blackford
When the name Dr Patrick Oakley is mentioned to health practitioners, doctors in training and patients around the Newcastle and Hunter New England Health District, it can quickly be concluded that ‘revered’ would be an understatement to describe the regard in which he is held.
A hugely impactful yet unassuming and humble doctor who has devoted his life to improving the lives of others, Dr Oakley recently spoke to Rural Doctors Network about the importance of offering Outreach clinics, and what’s kept him coming back to the same communities for so many years.
This May, Rural Doctors Network is celebrating long‑standing Outreach health professional Dr Patrick Oakley, whose commitment to rural and remote communities spans more than 15 years. Over this time, Dr Oakley has contributed approximately 1,500 hours, delivering more than 200 visits to nearly 2,000 patients through Rural Doctors Network‑administered programs alone.
And in all the years of offering Outreach, Dr Oakley says he’s only ever “missed” three clinics!
“That was because of two sandstorms and a fog – we couldn’t get through!” Dr Oakley explained. “But we did telehealth instead! You’ve got to turn up,” he emphasised.
Dr Oakley is a General Physician and Senior Staff Specialist in Aboriginal Chronic Care and Senior Staff Specialist in General Medicine at John Hunter Hospital NSW Health.
Constancy of care
Despite a busy work schedule outside of Outreach, Dr Oakley places significant importance on the value of providing consistency of care to his Outreach patients. He says this has allowed him to build up significant rapport and trust within the communities he’s been invited into and is one of many reasons he loves coming back.
“It’s lovely going back to communities and being able to connect with patients,” Dr Oakley said. “It’s really lovely going back to see somebody who you set a therapeutic plan in motion for six months ago, and you follow up and it’s worked – it’s just so good,” he said.
Born in country NSW, in the town of Yass, Dr Oakley later moved to Scone and completed his HSC at Kempsey High in 1985. He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Newcastle in 1991 and passed his RACP written and clinical examinations in 1996.
Advanced training was completed in 2000 Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, including 12 months in nephrology and then Fellowship in general medicine at Calvary Mater Hospital, Newcastle.
In 2007, Dr Oakley began providing a specialist medical clinic at Armajun Aboriginal Medical Service in Inverell and this is continued now, in addition to attending nine rural clinics, five of which are administered by Rural Doctors Network through the Medical Outreach Indigenous Chronic Disease Program (MOICDP).
This includes foundational services in Singleton (Ungooroo AMS) and Hamilton (HNELHD/ John Hunter Hospital) and currently vital diabetes clinics in Muswellbrook (HNELHD) and Narrabri (HealthWISE), alongside General Physician services at Taree (Biripi AMS). Dr Oakley operates one day clinics often six or seven times per annum at each location.
Medical Outreach Indigenous Chronic Disease Program (MOICDP).
The aim of MOICDP is to improve access to health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with chronic disease. Multidisciplinary clinical services are provided by a range of health professionals including Aboriginal Health Practitioners and medical specialists but also GPs, nurses and allied health professionals for best practice chronic disease prevention, treatment, management and follow-up.
Dr Oakley said each location has unique needs, but the clinics have been very well received over the years and involve many patient success stories that he still recalls to this day.
“We have had some life-changing results and improved quality of life,” he said.
However, part of Dr Oakley’s commitment to Outreach is not only to reduce the burden of chronic disease, but to improve access to safe and culturally appropriate care in the community.
“Some people simply won’t see a specialist,” Dr Oakley said. “If you go to the AMS – which is somewhere where people can feel more comfortable, then they'll see you. But if you were in the same town in your private rooms or at the hospital, then they [patients] may not.”
"HNELHD is the largest LHD in NSW with the highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in rural and remote areas. However, many don’t have access to an AMS so it’s hugely important to offer safe care and specialists alongside a local team of allied health professionals, clinical nurse consultants, RN educators and a GP shared model of care.”
Dr Oakley says there’s a high incidence of chronic disease in Aboriginal people, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, renal disease, respiratory disease, obesity and younger people presenting with more severe disease.
“…the further you go up the Hunter Valley, the higher the rate is for things like amputation for diabetic complications and the higher the rate of birth complications for women with gestational diabetes,” Dr Oakley said.
“There’s no question…. there’s more severe disease in younger people often because they just can't get access to specialist opinion,” he said.
Flexible approaches to chronic disease
To help develop and support flexible local approaches to chronic disease, Dr Oakley operates case management meetings each Monday as part of the Integrated Chronic Care for Aboriginal People Program (ICCAPP).
ICCAPP is a community outreach service that aims to increase access to culturally appropriate health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are at risk of, or who have, a chronic disease.
Dr Oakley meets each week with Clinical Nurse Consultants (CNC) who operate within five ICAAPP teams and conduct culturally appropriate, nurse led care alongside allied health professionals to increase health outcomes and support his patients.
Dr Oakley said as well as the need to offer culturally appropriate support, reducing the need for people to travel long distances is also why outreach is so important as this can form yet another barrier for patients accessing care.
“If patients need to go to, say John Hunter Hospital, to see a specialist for a certain thing, then that can be 600 kilometres, so the travel is also a definite issue.”
If it wasn’t for Outreach offering the opportunity to take specialist services out to the country, Dr Oakley says he fears delayed diagnosis would be one of many likely outcomes.
“Long wait lists when GPs refer and delayed diagnosis, potentially conditions worsening - they [patients] may never go,” he said.
However, one of the benefits of Dr Oakley’s position working in outreach and alongside colleagues at such a major hospital, is the opportunity to take his services out to community, but then bring the issues back to discuss and gain expert advice from colleagues at the John Hunter, and possibly even expedite treatment.
“I bring my own assessment (of the patient) and discuss the patient with the neurology colleague. Getting access to a major hospital or getting access to specialist can be really hard for a GP in the country,” he said.
“Whereas just say I see somebody with ‘difficult to control’ epilepsy, I'm not a neurologist, but ….I can come back with my assistant and then sit down with a neurology colleague and we can talk about the plan and whether they think they need to come down to the John Hunter or do a telehealth or whether they've got a plan for me - basically that person has gotten much easier access to a sub specialist than they could have and it may avert the need to travel down.”
Training as effective recruitment strategy
Outside of patient-centred care, of significant importance to Dr Oakley has also been the opportunity to educate training physicians to work outside of tertiary centres in rural health as part of his Outreach work. This has not only been valued by both patients and physicians but has also doubled as an effective recruitment strategy.
“I’m kind of protective of these clinics – but that’s been one of our best tools to recruit people and we have trained at least 50 people in the last decade who have completed their speciality and now are out there working and they have these skills that they wouldn’t have got without it,” Dr Oakley said.
“I'm also the supervisor of advanced training in general medicine at the John Hunter and that's really handy, because I think we need to take the opportunity to educate training physicians …and that access to future clinicians is important to me,” he said.
Dr Oakley explained that for the two years, he tries to link training physicians to the same location so they have continuity of care with the same patients too.
“…usually two years, occasionally three, but that is part of the expectation when they come to this particular training department.
“Trainees love the clinic and love the connection – they offer connection and are very popular clinics so there’s value for both the trainee and patient,” Dr Oakley said.
“All the clinics that I do, I bring an Advanced Trainee (AT) in General Medicine with me so we can effectively double the capacity and of course, attend to their training. We've got four ATs every year and they're attached to it for two years. We also take a junior doctor with an RMO [Resident Medical Officer] who I think benefits each time from the experience.”
Dr Oakley also credits the involvement of the Aboriginal Health Workers and clinical nurse consultants he works closely with, for making the clinics so successful and patient-centred, and says collaboration and communication with local clinicians at each location is also key.
The Outreach aim of sending specialists to rural and remote communities is an effective way to improve access to healthcare. Dr Oakley’s dedication, and ability to build connections and tailor clinics to the unique needs of each community, has been truly impactful. Dr Oakley’s ability to build trust through consistency of care for more than 15 years has allowed patients to feel seen, safe and supported and, importantly, know they can seek help and get answers despite additional barriers they may already be facing.
“When I first did clinics they’d say ‘who are you and why have we gotta see ya?' Which was entirely appropriate!” he said.
“But most people I see now have had family members who have met me – there’s lots of big families and small communities. I’ve got a link with them and with the community.
“Every time I go back, I see people who I know well from treatment, and I know their family well and many [patients] are very grateful; they're very happy to see you.
“You have to turn up,” Dr Oakley said.
Rural Doctors Network is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to administer the delivery of health Outreach services to remote, rural and regional areas, as well as to metropolitan and non-metropolitan Aboriginal communities, in New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). We also collaborate with other organisations and funding bodies to support Outreach projects.
Rural Doctors Network's Health Access Outreach Services are transitioning to RDN Health and will be administered as part of RDN Health in the new financial year. RDN Health is a social enterprise of RDN - The Charity for Health Access.
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