Farmer grateful to rural health hospital in St Marys after serious accident

Farmer Frank Giles was tending to his cattle when an "enthusiastic cow" pushed him over trying to get to some feed, knocking Mr Giles over and on to a knife that went through his leg.

"I had a knife to cut the bales open that went through my upper leg- in one side and out the other- the handle was between my legs." Mr Giles said.

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"The going in wasn't too bad but the pulling out was the painful part... I could see a lot of blood coming out."

Mr Giles took swift action to make a tourniquet using his belt and phoned St Marys Community Health Centre to let them know he was coming.

"At that stage I didn't know how the hell I was going to get there," Mr Giles said.

"I called a neighbor because it was no good calling the police or the ambulance; they would have taken too long to get there, and I would have been history.

"He [the neighbor] happened to be home, and he threw me in the back of the car and rushed me there."

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He said the hospital came to a stop on his arrival.

"I don't know how many people were in the room when I came in... I certainly wouldn't be here without them."

After further treatment at Launceston General Hospital, Mr Giles returned to St Marys to thank his doctor who saved his life.

He said his experience highlighted the fact that remote health facilities were vital to rural communities.

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"The facilities like these in remote areas are vitally needed because farming is a pretty dangerous job," Mr Giles said.

"It doesn't matter how much care you take, there's always something that goes wrong somewhere when least expected.

"Once something like this happens to you, you find out there's multiple people out there that have had similar circumstances...It's not until it happens to you that all these worms come out of the woodwork."

There have been concerns St Marys Community Health could lose its only GP, Dr Cyril Latt.

Last month, Tasmanian Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said it was his understanding Dr Latt would remain at the post for two years.

However, state opposition leader Rebecca White said the town needed more assurances and resources from the government. Acting Health Minister Michael Ferguson responded that the health centre had "never" been at risk.

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