New doctors join primary care clinic

A LOCAL medical clinic that seeks to take the pressure off the region’s hospital emergency departments has welcomed a swath of new doctors. 

Seven registers have joined the roster at the Bendigo Primary Care Centre in recent weeks. 

Clinic general manager, Callum Wright, said the additional doctors will work under the supervision of experienced clinicians. 

“It’s fair to say with the reduction of GPs in the system over recent years a lot of clinics like ours have pretty large patient bases, and we’re probably looking for more GP resources to support them,” he said. 

“I’d imagine we might be able to take on as many as 2000 new patients over the next few weeks.” 

Teaching and training lead, Sheriden Emonson, said the additional doctors may mean patients can be seen sooner. 

“I would say that our registrars are going to improve that system where the people who need to be seen by a doctor, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be their regular doctor, will be seen by one of our registrars,” he said. 

“In general, all general practitioners love learning, I don’t think we’re alone in that.  

“But… because we’re not-for-profit and we’ve got other stakeholders, that allows us to invest time in GPT-1-2s, as opposed to a private clinic that might not have that luxury of time for whatever restrictive reason.” 

One of the seven new doctors Dr Robbie Mann said he chose Bendigo Primary Care for the scope of insight it offered into general practice.  

“I chose to come here because of the structured teaching approach and the supervision, and also working closely with allied health in the building because I want to kind of see what general practice or primary care can offer, and what my future in general practice could be like,” he said.