Struggle against GP drought

DOCTOR George Somers has faced many challenges in the past 28 years but he says the biggest was the lack of trained GPs.
As he prepared to celebrate the Emerald Medical Centre’s 50 anniversary, Dr Somers told the Mail getting new and qualified doctors to the hills was a major hurdle which still existed today.
“It’s been a struggle despite our beautiful surroundings,” he said.
Dr Somers said the main reason it was so hard to get qualified doctors servicing the hills was due to the current classification.
“Our classification is on the same level as Carlton,” he said.
Dr Somers has been fighting for years to have the classification changed to rural.
Under the current system, the hills can’t access overseas trained doctors as they are only able to work in rural areas.
Dr Somers said this was especially important in the region because there was a shortage of doctors willing to work in the semi-rural areas.
He said it wasn’t just the need for more doctors but the fact that many patients needed to go off the mountain for allied health services such as psychology and further testing.
Dr Somers said anyone who needed an X-ray also had to travel for half an hour to the nearest hospital.
He said this made it hard to practice medicine.
Dr Somers said the centre aimed to offer as many services to its patients as possible because of the need to travel so far to get the care they needed.
Dr Somers said on reflection he could have given up years ago and moved to an area more accessible for his patients.
But he saw a dire need in the community for health care and continued to fighter for more doctors and for the rural classification.
“I stayed open despite the fact that we had no help and were overwork. The community made us stay open,” Dr Somers said.
“The need is so great and it puts so much pressure on us but it’s easier now there is six doctors to when I was doing it all on my own.”
Dr Somers said the aftermath of the Ash Wednesday bushfires had been a huge awakening for him.
He was just 32 at the time and had only been practicing in the hills for two years when the fires tore through Cockatoo.
“We set up a make-shift hospital at what is now the library at the old hall,” he said.
“We had a lot of people from nursing homes…60 elderly people lying in the beds and firemen with grit in their eyes and burn victims.”
Dr Somers said the experience had ignited his passion for emergency medicine and in 2005 spent six months working in Indonesia following the Boxing Day tsunami.
During his time at Emerald, Dr Somers has delivered more than 300 babies in the area.
He said despite not being a full-time doctor in the hills any more, it was still nice to walk down the street and be recognised.
Dr Somers also has big hopes for turning the centre into a teaching facility in the future.
He is now waiting on approval from the Cardinia Shire to extend the practice.
Dr Somers plans to build up into the roof cavity of the centre to create more office space.
“It will allow us to have medical students and registrars. We are heading towards more of a teaching practice,” he said.
But Dr Somers said it would all not be possible without the help of his staff, especially the practice manager Carol Johansson.
“There is no way I could do it all without them or continue to do so,” he said.