Goulburn River Group Practice has welcomed Dr Lester Nazareth, its new general practitioner.
Dr Nazareth works in primary care, including general practice and emergency, and has a special interest in skin cancer.
Dr Nazareth has worked in Seymour previously.
“I got married around COVID time and moved over to metropolitan Melbourne,” he said.
“It was very challenging with precautions and vaccinations and all the lockdowns, then I moved to country Victoria to work for the next two and a half years.”
Dr Nazareth said he had found that building relationships with patients in country Victoria was quite different to the ones in the city.
“I noticed in metropolitan Melbourne when there are lots of specialists around and frankly, the work you do is not as gratifying as what you do in the country,” he said.
“Quite often, the simplest of things are handed over ... referred over to other specialities.
“In the country, we take on as many of these specialities ourselves until the patient gets to see a specialist, which is very gratifying.
“You see varied systems across that you're treating, and you get to provide holistic care as opposed to just seeing a person once-off and then referring on and then you might not see them again for many months.
“You get that longevity and that continued care, which you miss out on in the cities.”
Dr Nazareth has been a fellow for six years, and said he found working in medicine fulfilling.
“I studied biomedical science and while I was doing my honours at The Alfred hospital, I worked with cancer predominantly, so there’s a lot of laboratory work,” he said.
“I found working in medicine to be very fulfilling, even though I was working on the peripheries of medicine, more into research.
“I saw how clinicians treat their patients, were compassionate at providing care, and that really made me interested in medicine, wanting to do it for the long term.”
Dr Nazareth has been with the Goulburn River Group Practice for three months, and he is enjoying his time meeting patients new and old.
“It’s interesting, I recognised some people that I’ve known from like five, six years ago while I was here and many of them do recognise me,” he said.
Dr Nazareth works primarily in Seymour but also at the clinic’s branch in Avenel.
“My colleagues, they’re very friendly and very knowledgeable, it’s fun working with them,” he said.
“We always are trying to cover each other’s schedules and making sure all possible times we have enough cover here and in the other clinic in Avenel, as well.”
Dr Nazareth has moved back to Seymour, but not just for work reasons.
“I want to become an active member of the community in Seymour,” he said.
“My wife, myself and our baby have moved from Melbourne to here, so we’re looking to set our roots here.
“Enjoy the country lifestyle that Seymour has to offer.”