Collie Medical Group’s new General Practitioner has expressed her exitement in getting to know the community.
Dr Navneet Kaur Nandha grew up and then studied in a small North Indian village, Seona.
“There were not many doctors around, we had to travel about 50 to 60 kilometres to get medical access,” she said.
“I was bright in studies as well so I thought I would be a doctor, plus I was very bad a mathematics so I couldn’t be an engineer, I was inclined towards medicine so I decided to be a doctor.”
The 31-year-old remained in China for training for over five-and-a-half years before she moved back to India to practice. “I got culture shock every time I travelled to a new place, when I travelled to China...it’s a developing country but it is completely different to India,” she said.
She got married and moved to Perth, before shifting back to India, then onto Canada and then back to Australia.
Dr Kaur Nandha has now been in Collie for almost three months, officially observing the Collie Medical Group’s practices before officially starting in September.
“I was coming to Collie Medical Centre every day before that [her first day practicing] to see how things are done here because the health system is different from India and China as well, so to get myself aware of the health standards and health system before I started working,” she said.
“I decided to get my hands on the system. Most of the patients already know me, they knew me before I started [laughs].”
Dr Kaur Nandha said she was getting used to what the town had to offer. “Collie has everything that one needs – it has schools, major shopping centres, we have two medical centres her and I have seen there are plenty of restaurants and cafes so I would say that it is not that small,” she said. “I am getting used to Collie now and a plus is that everything is five minutes drive.”
Dr Kaur Nandha said the people have made her feel at home and have never treated her like an outsider.
The GP has made plans to stay in Collie for at least five years. She was also looking forward to establishing a good patient base in town while working towards becoming a specialist GP in women’s issues.
