Dr Raad Qsous from Wetherill Park Medical Centre loves the diversity and challenges of general practice. “We as GPs face many different presentations on a daily basis. I see each challenge as a puzzle where you have to put things together to get to a diagnosis and be able to treat the patient.”
How long have you been a GP and how long have you been practising in Wetherill Park/Fairfield LGA?
I graduated from Jordan University of Science and Technology in Jordan in 2012. I did an internship year in Royal Medical Services hospitals in Amman, Jordan, then I worked for two years in a small hospital in Amman where I covered the emergency department, ICU as well as the surgical wards and the GP clinic. During this time I was preparing for the Australian exams and I passed them in 2015. I came to Australia and started work as a full-time GP in November 2015 at Wetherill Park Medical Centre. For the first two years I worked seven days a week, mainly in the after hours clinic from 6pm to 11pm, and covering the weekends as well. As a GP you get the opportunity to manage a wide diversity of cases and conditions. It’s very different than hospital work and I found that to be very challenging. I put as much effort as I could into my work so I could develop my skills and be able to provide better care for my patients.
When/why did you decide you wanted to become a GP?
It started when I was preparing for the Australian exam. At that time I was working in a hospital and studying. During my studies I was fascinated with the primary healthcare system of Australia, how developed and organised it is, and all the medical conditions a GP can manage in general practice. When I arrived in Australia and started working in general practice I was even more attached to the clinical work and the day-to-day challenges I faced. As a GP you have the chance to work with people from different age groups, to manage different conditions, both medical and surgical. You can develop your skills and you can do advanced things if you are confident, and if you have enough expertise. I love this career and wanted to pursue a speciality in general practice. I did the practice-based teaching program and applied for Fellowship from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) this year. I passed the exams and was granted the Fellowship.
What do you love most about being a GP/what part of the job gives you the most satisfaction?
What I love most about general practice is that each day is different. We as GPs face many different presentations on a daily basis. I see each of these as a puzzle and you have to put things together to get to a diagnosis to be able to treat the patient. Each patient is different and each case requires a certain approach, starting with listening to the patient’s complaint, performing a thorough examination, ordering relevant investigations when necessary and then treating the patient. A patient’s trust and the special doctor-patient relationship which develops over the years is unique and makes you committed to providing the best care you can to make patients feel better. The satisfaction I get when I help a patient cannot be described. Patients always feel the care they get and are always very grateful. This is what makes general practice such an interesting field.
What is the most important thing you/your practice contributes to this community?
We have probably 15 to 20 full-time GPs working in the practice. Our GPs are divided between the regular hours and after hours where we provide ongoing care to patients until 11pm. We are also open on weekends. We have doctors on site at all times and lots of specialists. We have an orthopedic surgeon, cardiologist, endocrinologist, pediatrician, neurologist, general surgeon, gastroenterologist, geriatrician, rehabilitation physician, psychologist, dietician and physiotherapist. We all communicate to be able to provide the best care for our patients. I cover the after hours clinic where I see both regular appointments as well as walk-in patients. This helps to lessen the number of patients attending emergency departments, reducing the burden on emergency departments and ensuring they have time to care for critically ill patients. It also helps patients avoid long waits at the hospital for something which can be managed in a GP practice. The presence of an after hours clinic is also convenient to many people who work as they can see the GP after their work so they don’t have to take leave.
In recent years a big refugee community has come to the Fairfield LGA – people from many countries who have fled war zones. Unfortunately, this has impacted their mental health significantly, many people have developed a range of mental health conditions including depression and PTSD. The number of people struggling with mental health because of lockdown has also increased. It has affected people who already had mental health conditions, aggravating their conditions, and we’ve seen people who hadn’t experience any mental health conditions in the past. Many of them started to develop mental health conditions recently because of lockdown. The big challenge that we face in our community is that lots of refugees do not speak English. I speak Arabic so that makes it easy for me to communicate with patients until they can see a specialist.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time I enjoy going out for long walks, going to the gym to exercise as well as doing some boxing classes. In addition, I enjoy reading medical journals and articles.
Tell me about your ideal work day…
I cover the after hours clinic in my practice, so I usually start seeing my patients at 6pm and finish by 11pm. During weekdays I book patients for regular consultations and if there are any minor procedures to be performed – skin lesion excisions, cyst removals and other minor procedures – I usually perform those on a Sunday afternoon. I find this very interesting as I have a special interest and passion for minor surgeries.
My ideal work day is a day where I face many challenging medical conditions and complicated clinical scenarios which give me the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with other doctors or specialists, to discuss the condition in a multidisciplinary team environment, in order to help the patient. The key to helping a patient with complex health issues is good teamwork and ongoing follow up.
What do you love most about Wetherill Park/Fairfield LGA?
What I like most about Wetherill Park is that it’s multicultural. I have the chance to see people from all different cultures and backgrounds. People in this area are very lovely, humble and have a great sense of humour. I feel like people in this LGA are like a big family to me and I’m honoured to be able to look after them and have their full trust.
What advice do you give your patients about maintaining good health?
I tell patients that to have good health you have to have both good mental health and good physical health. I tell them to exercise regularly, eat healthy and always speak up when they get stressed or depressed and never hold their emotions. I tell them the best way to manage disease is to prevent it from happening. The good thing about general practice is that you are involved in preventative healthcare. By doing regular check-ups as GPs we get the chance to detect things very early on, then try to implement lifestyle modifications to prevent a disease from happening.