GP Profile – Dr Chris Touma

Dr Chris Touma has been a GP at Camden Central Family Practice for the last two years after completing his training in the country town of Orange and in Campbelltown. He believes putting your own health needs first is of utmost importance if you want to be able to care for others.

How long have you been a GP and how long have you been practising in South Western Sydney?

I have been at Camden Central Family Practice for two years. I have been a GP for five years, including my training. I did my general practice and hospital training in Orange and Molong then moved to Camden and started at the practice I’m working at now. I did my training in Campbelltown, Westmead, Orange and Bathurst.

When/why did you decide you wanted to become a GP? 

I wanted to be a GP from the get-go. I was tossing up between palliative care and general practice, but I decided general practice gives you the breadth of everything, from babies which are a couple of days old through to someone who may be 100 years old – and everything in between. I like the continuity of care you get in general practice as opposed to seeing people once a year or when they come to the emergency department. I see four generations of one family in my practice, and you don’t get that in much else. You have a relationship with the whole family, not just individuals.

What do you love most about being a GP/what part of the job gives you the most satisfaction?

When the work you are doing actually improves peoples’ lives and you can see that happening. You get to follow up on the treatment you have recommended and see them get better. It’s not like in an emergency department where you are just patching people up and shipping them off. You get to look at your patient’s health in a holistic way and see how it impacts them as a person, whether that impacts their mental health, whether it affects their ability to work – you work on everything. You are not just homing in on one thing. You are treating the person rather than just the disease.

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

In my spare time I focus on keeping myself healthy: cooking good food and going to the gym. I like to spend time with my family and my friends. Fortunately, there are lots of good restaurants in Camden and we like to go out for dinner together. I work four days a week, but they are long days.

What do you love most about Camden?

This is a great community, and the people are really friendly. Also, it’s like the country but close to Sydney so you have balance between the two. It’s nice, it’s quiet and Camden people are really nice people. It’s the best of both worlds.

What advice do you give your patients about maintaining good health?

I encourage people to look after themselves before they look after anyone else. I have people coming in and they are busy looking after their parents, their partner or their kids, but they are not prioritising their own health, and they are just falling to pieces. I tell them, at the end of the day they have to put themselves first, so they are able to cope with everything else, whether that be work, or caring for others.