Mayor's health in good hands

L_R Wei Han Ong, Patrick Chung, Sitra Yusuf, Eve Taylor and Zanetta Jodlowska give Mayor Perkins on the chair a checkup

MAY 2017 | Elizabeth Douglass

FOR A week in April, the Meander Valley hosted five second-year medical students from UTAS.

Meander Valley Council and Westbury Community Health Centre, as well as many other health and welfare organisations throughout the valley, introduced the students to the realities of rural medical practice.

The five students may come from different backgrounds but they all chose to study at UTAS in Tasmania because of the University’s emphasis on rural medical practice and access to rural communities.

From Somerset on the north coast, Eve Taylor has grown up with first-hand experience of medical practices outside large cities.

Zanetta Jodlowska also has personal knowledge of the medical facilities available in rural Tasmania, as her mother’s family hail from Bruny Island.

Sitra Yusuf, is from Melbourne and has chosen UTAS precisely because she wishes to focus on rural and refugee health. She expects that her studies and practical experience here in Tasmania will further her goals.

Patrick Chung is Hobart born and raised, and also sees a likely future in rural medical practice, either in Tasmania or elsewhere.

Wei Han Ong is from Singapore but readily acknowledges that his home is not the easiest place in which to experience rural medical practice, so he has chosen Tasmania precisely because of the emphasis on rural health.

All five students are aware of the numerous career opportunities in rural medical practice outside large cities. They are also well aware of the philanthropic rewards to be gained from working in remote or under resourced areas.

A week in the Valley was well spent, for their future and ours.

Photo | Mike Moores