THE chance to build up a long-lasting relationship with people in the community and live in a beautiful area are among the reasons why three new doctors have joined a local practice.
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Dr Patrick McNamara, Dr Tom McNamara and Dr William Scholz are the Milton Medical Centre's three new doctors.
All three are looking forward to working hard for their community and they love being in a regional area.
Dr Pat originally comes from Adelaide and grew up in Sydney.
He also comes from a strong regional NSW background having spent time in the Maitland, Dungog and Albury/Wodonga areas.
"I came down here as part of my internship for a rotation and decided I would come back," Dr Pat said.
Dr Pat studied at the University of NSW which included two years at Prince of Wales, two years in Albury/Wodonga and two at Sutherland Hospitals.
He was in the region for 12 weeks, which included the Black Summer bushfire crisis in 2019, where he spent a lot of time in the GP clinic and the emergency department.
"I guess what I like is you can do a bit of everything here - you can work across the road [at the hospital] and have a pretty broad practice," Dr Pat said.
"It's just a lovely place to live."
Dr Pat does not see any appeal in going back to work in a big city and described the Milton/Ulladulla area as the perfect place to work.
"I could not think of anywhere better," Dr Pat said.
"We all trained in a big city hospital and so we have the skillset and the knowledge, but coming down here let's know our patients, work with people long term and bring skills down here."
Dr Will grew up in the Armidale area and then moved to Sydney to study at Sydney University and did intern residence at Prince of Wales.
Dr Will has been working as an emergency doctor for the past four years in Coffs Harbour, Taree and Tamworth but has since made the change to a GP.
"I moved down just before Christmas, and it's a perfect place to live," Dr Will said.
"The area is very similar to my hometown of Armidale and I think country people have a different way of approaching life, which aligns with our values."
Dr Will said he was planning on practising long-term in rural areas.
Dr Tom and Dr Pat were in the same year group at the University of NSW.
Dr Tom also did a rotation in the area as a "junior doctor".
"In terms of the medicine it was the small local community and a wide variety of services that you can offer the community," Dr Tom said as a way of explaining why he is now based in Milton.
"There is more breadth of medicine compared to the big cities and outside of that, I love the local surf and hiking.
"The local area is beautiful in general."
Dr Tom was born in Sydney and grew up in Launceston, Tasmania.
"I feel I have a commitment to the area as I have worked down here before," Dr Tom said.
Dr Tom hopes to train in subspecialty areas like skin and skin-cancer, mental health and paediatrics - he wants to help meet the needs of the local community.
"It's nice to be seeing the same people and building up a relationship with them," he said.
