Topic: Profile

Dr Dong Hua’s Kenyon St Medical Centre at Fairfield is among four general practices in South Western Sydney selected to run the Commonwealth-funded GP-led respiratory clinics. Dr Hua says it’s a significant challenge but he’s optimistic about defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

How long have you been a GP and how long have you been practising in Fairfield? 

I have been a GP for 15 years (including registrar training) and have been practising in Fairfield since 2008.

 

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

I decided that I wanted to become a GP during internship having realised that the best way to obtain continuity of care of patients is to become the primary health provider.

 

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

I love GP work because of its diversity of presentations and it allows me to pursue some of my special interests, with one being medical acupuncture. The greatest satisfaction I get is when patients report a better quality of life, whether its placebo or not, particularly when traditional treatments have failed.

 

What is the most important thing you/your practice contributes to this community? 

My practice has been important in providing a multidisplinary approach in enhancing patients’ health. This has been achieved by the talented and hardworking allied health team at Kenyon St Medical Centre at Fairfield. We cater for everyone and more recently our staff has been involved with NDIS patients. We have been rewarded with the local business award for most outstanding health services category last year and this year we made it to the finals of Australian small business champion awards. An amazing feat for which I am proud of each of my staff for their significant contributions. More recently, we have been selected to open respiratory/COVID-19 clinics in Fairfield and Campbelltown. A significant challenge but I am optimistic we as a country can win this war against the pandemic.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

I rarely have spare time these days but I do love the spend it with my wife and two children.

 

Tell me about your ideal day…

My ideal day is sitting in front of TV and watching the Parramatta Eels win.

 

What do you love most about Fairfield?

Fairfield is culturally diverse and despite being a low socioeconomic area, a lot of the people who are immigrants (myself included) are grateful for having a chance at a better life.

 

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

Be active, stay safe and remember to practice social distancing (in this pandemic)!

Dr Grace Torres from Park Central Family Practice at Campbelltown believes getting to know her patients holistically helps ensure she can give them and their families a personalised approach to healthcare.

 

How long have you been a GP and how long have you been practising in Campbelltown?

I’ve been in general practice for 20 years. All of it in the Macarthur area, including Elderslie and the Camden area. I’ve concentrated on Campbelltown for the past 17 years.

 

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

I wanted to do primary care since medical school. I grew up in a healthcare system in the Philippines wherein the initial contact by patients is through a specialist – “any doctor closest to home and whoever your family knows”.  So, you may end up seeing a dermatolgist for a child’s cough and colds. Being a specialist is also regarded as superior to general practice, so everyone ended up training to a specialty. When I moved to Australia, I was lucky enough to do hospital rotations in all the specialties to help me decide the pathway I really wanted to take and hopefully pursue for the rest of my life. I was in fact interested in most of them but I realised that general practice provided the most comprehensive approach to patient care. The training was also suitable for young families to achieve a balanced work and home life.    

 

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

Knowing the patient holistically, attending to their physical symptoms, correlating with their mental state, psychosocial issues and past experiences allow us to manage each patient with a very personal approach. Seeing a patient longitudinally, following up to assess their progress, being aware of their day-to-day function, knowing their cultural background and preferences allow you to tailor your management to achieve improved compliance and therefore optimal outcome. What gives me the most satisfaction is the feedback from patients, knowing that I’ve helped them, from a simple understanding of what’s going on in their body, to how our routines start to cause some organs to malfunction and manifest as physical symptoms and how they are empowered to take control of the situation and therefore improve health and wellbeing. 

 

What is the most important thing you/your practice contributes to this community?

I believe the cycle of good physical health equates to healthy mind which equates to feeling happy, content and peaceful. Emotions can present either because patients are in a crisis or is least prioritised because there is a lot of deeply rooted conversations to be had in order to manage.  It is usually easier for both the patients and the GP to present and deal with physical symptoms. The management of most physical symptoms come down to a good sleep, a healthy balanced diet and  regular exercise. So, I put a big effort into emphasising these three foundations to optimise health. I talk a lot about sleep hygiene, healthy eating and trying to set a good example by encouraging patients to make exercise fun and enjoyable. I’ve started a group of patients to attend Campbelltown Parkrun and make an effort for myself to turn up regularly on Saturday mornings at 7am for a 5km free, council-run group walk/run. We also participate in other challenge walks in the area to emphasise awareness of physical activity in a social setting that is fun and enjoyable. The practice has also started a cycling team which involves other doctors, practice manager and any patient who is interested. We participate every six months in two major charity bike rides to raise funds for Lifeline in March (The Bobbin Head Cycle) and Multiple Sclerosis (Sydney to Gong) in November every year.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

There’s no more time left ! I work Monday to Saturday, and then there’s fitness classes after work  before going home (at least 30 minutes of functional training, cycling, running or swimming). The brain and the body work well with a good balance of work, physical activity, proper nutrition and enough sleep. 

 

Tell me about your ideal day…

A full list of patients with a good mix of chronic disease and acutely sick patients, a lunch break is essential but we sometimes can miss it. We also use our breaks for the all the doctors in the practice to debrief: to share our cases and opinions on management or alternative treatments and hopefully, get to leave on time to get to a gym class and then home for dinner and family time.

 

What do you love most about Campbelltown?

Campbelltown is an area with high medical needs for both complex cases and acute illnesses with highly variable cultural backgrounds. Patients are really in need of physical care – even the basics of health education focusing on nutrition, physical activity and self-care. There is a lot of opportunity for lifestyle modification counselling. I’ve been in the area long enough to look after three generations of families and be aware of  what chronic diseases exist in the family and how I can help them prevent or delay developing it. Now, when I see the younger patients from families I know, I say ‘I want to help you now because I’ve told grandma that if she’d been helped 20 years ago she would not be in the bad state she is in now’.

 

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

I have a different approach for each patient, depending on what stage in life they’re in. Sleep is always very important so I can start talking about sleep patterns from babies through to teens, young adults, young families, middle life up to elderly. If there’s going to be some lifestyle modification needed, I usually emphasise that optimal sleep will improve their energy levels during the day and feel motivated for whatever lifestyle change they intend to achieve. Once we’ve achieved a reasonable decent sleeping pattern, some patients might want to improve their diet next or some would actually prefer to increase their physical activity. As mentioned earlier, it depends on the individual’s routine and preference, we negotiate what they think is achievable. Once they feel that they’ve been listened to, they feel empowered to manage their routines to achieve their goals in health. I always emphasise the basics: sleep, nutrition and physical activity and aim for higher goals. Getting help and knowing when and how to seek help during their journey is also important.    

The broadness of general practice attracted Dr Pauline Hector to the profession. The satisfaction of providing stable, long-term care to her patients at Queen Street General Practice, and endless opportunities to learn, has kept her there. 

 

 

How long have you been a GP and how long have you been practising in the Campbelltown LGA?

I’ve been practising in Campbelltown for about 29 years, and as a GP for about 35 years.

 

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

I wasn’t one of those people that was always driven to do medicine but I did well at school and had the opportunity to do medicine. Once I’d graduated, I worked out pretty quickly that I wanted to do general practice. The broadness of it appealed to me, rather than focusing in on any one particular specialty.

 

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

On a personal level, it’s the breadth of things that you see, that you are exposed to and have to think about – I find that satisfying. Every day there’s something new to learn. I enjoy the challenge of keeping up and learning new things all the time. I also enjoy giving patients continuity of care, being somebody they know they can continue to call on for whatever problem they might have. You are their first port of call – you’re the one that they seek help from first and as you get more experience, you get much better at directing people to who they need to see if you can’t help with their problems. I enjoy the whole cradle to grave side of things, seeing people through different stages of their lives. When you’ve been a GP for a long time you are seeing three and four generations and that’s very satisfying too.

 

What is the most important thing you/your practice contributes to this community?

It’s about providing quality care and confidence for people. I had my own practice for a long time and I moved into this practice coming up to five years ago. This practice has a very similar ethos to what I had in my own practice – it’s all about seeing the patient in their community, in their culture and providing them with overall care. It’s not just about looking at their medical issues but making sure that what we’re doing fits in with their place in the world. That’s our biggest service to the community. I also have a particular interest in women’s health and mental health. I think the community in general benefits from people receiving holistic care with an emphasis on prevention and well thought out management plans.

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like being outside, that could be swimming, going to the beach, walking locally or in the bush. I do as much of that as I possibly can in my spare time. Hanging out with friends and family and doing grandparent things with my granddaughter are also highlights of my spare time. One of my other great pleasures is going to the cinema to see all sorts of movies from the mainstream to the oddball to documentaries, I love getting lost in a story for a couple of hours.

 

Tell me about your ideal day…

My ideal day would start with a swim. An ideal work day is a day where I’m challenged but not too much! It’s an interesting day that’s not overwhelmed by paperwork or red tape or a greater than usual load of those heartsink patients we all have. A day where you can have a little bit of time to share a laugh with your colleagues is a good day, and an ideal day finishes with seeing my family and enjoying a nice cup of tea.

 

What do you love most about Campbelltown?

For me partly it’s a sense of feeling at home here even though I’m not a Campbelltown native. I grew up in the western suburbs of Newcastle in a very working class area in a single parent household which I feel helps me relate to the various struggles that a lot of our local families are faced with. The demographics of Campbelltown these days is very broad as well and that’s good from a medical point of view because you see a whole range of conditions. I think that what has kept me here is the long-term relationships with patients. Also, when you’ve been in the one area for a long time you start off seeing lots of babies and lots of kids but then you see those kids grow up and you move more into caring for elderly people. Professionally, it’s very rewarding. Interestingly I have recently discovered from my aunt who is interested in family history that when my father’s family first immigrated from England in the 1840s they settled in Campbelltown and my great great grandfather was born here in 1859. Maybe that’s why I feel so at home here.

 

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

Lots!

I try really hard to get people to look at their lifestyle and I try to impress on people the importance of activity, whether it’s physical or mental activity. I also try to help them to see the positives, especially when I’m treating patients with mental health concerns. In my own life when I’ve had major setbacks, I have always found looking for small positives a very helpful strategy. I think even when we are at our lowest if we can find some small pleasure to enjoy we can build from there. I try to get people to go outside and get some sunlight and hear the birds singing and occasionally I might throw in a quote from the Dalai Lama!