Advanced Listening Practice

1. What does David describe as typical of a fly-in health centre?
    A fully staffed emergency department with imaging and surgical capability
    A large clinic with specialist consultation rooms and a pharmacy
    A dispensary, basic lab services, and limited equipment
    Administrative offices but no real clinical capacity, used mainly for referrals

2. What does the distance to the nearest hospital imply about David's clinical decisions?
    That he can usually consult a specialist by video link before acting
    That he makes decisions alone that would never fall to one practitioner in the south
    That he transfers most patients by road rather than air
    That the distance is manageable and rarely changes outcomes

3. What does David mean when he calls the isolation "clarifying"?
    It clarified his decision to return eventually to urban practice
    The lack of distractions sharpened his diagnostic accuracy
    It showed him which medical specialisms are unnecessary
    Working without support forced him to be honest about what he did and didn't know

4. Why does David object to the way northern mental health is often discussed?
    He thinks researchers overstate the problem to secure grant funding
    The deficit narrative obscures the structural causes and ignores what communities do well
    He believes only specialists, not GPs, should handle mental health
    He opposes Western psychiatric models in any Indigenous community

5. Why does David contrast land-based healing camps with "a prescription pad and a referral form"?
    To show that culturally grounded approaches can outperform standard clinical ones
    To argue Western medicine should be abandoned in the north
    To admit he personally lacks the training to treat mental health
    To criticise drug companies for overcharging remote communities

6. When David says calling a colleague at 2am is "the system working," what is he challenging?
    The funding model that stops communities hiring more staff
    His own training, which he thinks fell short
    The assumption that asking for help signals inadequacy
    The satellite phone provider's unreliable service

7. What does David say about his early motivation that he thinks matters to acknowledge?
    That wanting to feel significant was part of it, alongside genuinely helping
    That he went purely for money and is now embarrassed by it
    That he had no interest at first and was simply assigned there
    That he meant to stay a year and missed his chance to leave

8. When David says "don't go to save anyone," what is the core of his warning?
    That the communities need no outside medical help
    That the saviour framing centres the practitioner rather than the community
    That saving lives isn't part of remote practice
    That "save" carries a legal meaning that creates liability