HEALTHY BASTARDS: DR DAVE BALDWIN'S CALLING!

Hi, all of you Hunters and Outdooreze folks!

I am very grateful to the Hunting & Fishing New Zealand establishment for allowing me to introduce myself to you in this Autumn edition of their magazine as Dr Dave Baldwin, self proclaimed “First World President of the International Healthy Bastards Club.” It has become my real passion for doing this type of work because of its huge potential to "make a difference" in improving health in this country. Thankfully, the Hunting & Fishing organization recognise this as well and I got the call to let you know what I am all about.

Just so you know, I am a "real doctor". It all started when I got my Bachelor of Science degree at Massey University in the late 1970's, from which I was able to establish a foothold in the world of “brainy bastards” by getting accepted by Otago University for medical training. After another eight years I got signed off as a GP by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners. I must say the 11 years of training was hard yakka, but I got there in the end, and I love the job. However, in reflection, I do like describing this whole process of me becoming a doctor in "Country Bumpkin Language" made so famous by the Massey University Diploma of Agriculture students. Subsequently, they would describe my career development as: “Six munths ago, I could nut spell Dokta and now I are one!” Anyway, since graduating I have set up three separate jobs that are so good, I now call them 'adventures'.

I have developed the “Bulls Flying Doctor Service” (www.flyingdoctor.co.nz) which provides a mobile aviation medical service to pilots throughout the rural South Island.

Dr Dave Baldwin

Firstly, I have been working as a rural GP at the Bulls Medical Centre for over 30 years. Secondly, I have developed the “Bulls Flying Doctor Service” (www.flyingdoctor.co.nz) which provides a mobile aviation medical service to pilots throughout the rural South Island. This work involves doing a regular “aero-ward round” in my Cessna Bush Plane carrying out the aviation medicals on pilots at their closest remote airstrip. These include places such as Karamea, Hoki, Fox, Te Anau, along with a few 'house calls' to farmer pilots at Mt White Station or the Muzzle Station located way up the Clarence River.

My third job has been developing my non-PC form of health communication called the "Healthy Bastards Campaign". It began because I got sick of going to the morgue to sign off middle-aged people that I had known as a GP - almost all of them had died way too early in their lives from preventable diseases like premature heart attacks and diabetes mellitus. It became clear to me that the traditional health promotional strategies weren’t being taken notice of by many of these people. Based on this I decided to give it a go at promoting good health to what I call “the great unwashed” by doing lots of non-PC health talks, a movie, writing articles for magazines and four books, along with producing YouTubes and a Healthy Bastards Facebook. All this material is online www.flyingdoctor.co.nz, but I am very grateful to a few Hunting & Fishing stores who're putting my fourth book, "the Bushman's Bible", on the shelves for sale. This book promotes the awesome wonder and spirituality that most of us feel when we're alone out there in the mountains. I am also grateful to the NZ Outdoor Magazine for letting me do a regular feature on "The Journey of the Bushman's Bible" (Article 18 will be out soon and this covers the region of the Whataroa River and the 'Garden of Eden' - great thar hunting area!).

Anyway, my Healthy Bastards Club is all about communication and trying to get good health messages to all of those unhealthy bastards out there who haven't been listening to the more conventional PC health promotional material. Based on this, if you have any burning health issues you want me to comment on, then contact the Hunting & Fishing staff at your local store and they will track me down (it could take a while though as I may be hunting!)

Best regards
Dr Dave