BluePrint MedTalks

Leaving the NHS for Psychiatry in Australia

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In this episode of BluePrint MedTalks, our co-founder Michael Fernandes sits down with Dr David, a psychiatry registrar currently training in New South Wales.


David shares his unconventional path into medicine, from studying English and Art History at Edinburgh, training as a Royal Navy reservist through medical school, and ultimately relocating to Australia in 2021 during COVID.

He opens up about working across Darwin, Hobart, and Armadale in Perth, why he eventually left emergency medicine after four years for psychiatry, and what life looks like as a UK trained doctor raising two young children in Byron Bay.

He shares:

  • What it was like moving to Australia during COVID, from APRA and visa hurdles to a camper van quarantine in New South Wales and ten days at a quarantine facility outside Darwin.

  • Why he left the NHS, including his belief that any business model reliant on individuals being heroic to stay viable isn't a model that should survive.

  • The cultural shift in Australia around work life balance, including being told he had thirteen years to complete five years of psychiatry training, and never staying a minute past his shift in ED.

  • How working across Darwin, Hobart, and Armadale shaped him as a clinician, and why the people in your department matter more than the location itself.

  • The differences between metro, regional, and remote hospitals, including why regional work pushes you to grow faster but requires a foundation of experience first.

  • Why he transitioned from emergency medicine into psychiatry after four years, and what was missing for him in the firefighting model of ED care.

  • What has surprised him three months into psychiatry training, from the diversity of the role to the volume of paperwork and the collegiate nature of MDT work.

  • The biggest pressures facing psychiatry trainees in Australia today.

  • Why locum work has supported a lifestyle that lets him gallivant across the country while building a life outside medicine.

  • What he tells UK doctors weighing up the move, and why six months of work in Australia can fund the European trips, family visits, and festivals they say they miss back home.

    • If you're considering a move to Australia, exploring a career in psychiatry, or curious about what life looks like for a UK doctor working across different states and specialties, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

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    BluePrint MedTalksBy BluePrint Medical