Junior Doctor Conference keynote speaker: Dr Fiona Baker

As a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, it’s possible Fiona Baker could have led a successful life as a performer and teacher of classical piano and violin.

But the Brisbane-raised, Fraser Coast-based doctor had another calling. 

“I always wanted to do medicine, it was always there,” she says.

“It was mainly the drive to care for people, and to help improve systems and processes for vulnerable cohorts.”

It’s this Unexpected Journey that will make Dr Baker an unmissable keynote speaker at the upcoming Junior Doctor Conference in her hometown of Hervey Bay.

Dr Baker is passionate about sharing her experience of the breadth of opportunities open to her younger colleagues, particularly in regional Queensland.

“If someone had said to me when I was in med school – or even when I signed up to do ED training – in ten years you’ll be Clinical Director of Integrated Care and be the Chair of [Clinical Network of] Queensland Dementia, Ageing and Frailty, I would have laughed,” she says. 

“Your career journey starts once you finish medicine, and it doesn’t stop.”

Dr Baker’s call to the regions began with a posting to Townsville, followed by time in Cairns, Mareeba, and short placements in Mount Isa, Bowen and Ingham. Also a qualified GP, she has worked in several Aboriginal Medical Services. 

Dr Baker’s first stint in Hervey Bay ended in 2015, when she returned to Brisbane to undergo tertiary emergency training at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. 

But the beautiful Fraser Coast called her back in 2018. 

“I’ve experienced a bit of everything, and I actively made the decision to come back to regional Queensland,” she says.

“You can promote equity of access to care, you can help develop the models that might be obvious in the metro regions but aren’t here. You can really be a positive voice, and a strong voice.”

Now the Clinical Director of Integrated Care on the Fraser Coast, Dr Baker has used her voice to develop and uplift hospital substitutive models of care, including Hospital in the Home (HITH) and Geriatric Evaluation and Management Hospital in the Home (GEM HITH). 

She says the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic forced new ways of thinking. 

“My experience as Co-Clinical lead for the Wide Bay COVID Virtual Ward helped me realise not everything needs to be done in the traditional hospital bed.

“During this time, we had to virtually manage not just patients with COVID, but also exacerbations of their asthma, COPD and chronic disease.

“This experience set me on the part of the career I’m on now – developing and optimising hospital avoidance and substitutive services which are able to provide acute care within an alternative care setting to the traditional hospital bed.”  

Her unexpected journey may no longer include professional musicianship, but Dr Baker’s home remains full of joyous sounds. 

“I have four kids at home and they all learn music, so we come home and they’re all on different instruments, and every day I’m surrounded by music.

“I think creativity helps me in my line of work, because it lets you imagine ‘How can we do this differently?’

“There’s no boundaries to possibility, only the boundaries you put in place yourself.” 

Meet Dr Baker and hear her inspiring story at this year’s Junior Doctor Conference on 17-18 May.