That’s the view of three doctors – two training to become general practitioners and one newly returned from maternity leave – who are plying their trade at the newly extended Narromine Shire Family Health Centre.

GP registrars Dr Sharn Cummings and Dr Samiya Chowdury will be based at the centre for six months as part of their training, under the supervision of Dr Neil McCarthy and Dr Sam Wakista with the assistance of Dr Niro Wickramasinghe and Dr Champika Narasinghe.

“You get to do some things you might not see in the city,” Dr Cummings said, who remarked at the almost 10,000 patients on the clinic’s books.

“We don’t just look after Narromine, we look after how ever many towns within a few hundred kilometres.

“There’s more chance of doing some procedural things and there’s also a great opportunity to see Aboriginal patients that you don’t get to see in the city, which is really valuable experience as a doctor, it’s really important.”

Dr Owens added that because of the practice’s links to the hospital, the doctors’ “scope of practice” was much larger than in metropolitan areas.

“The medicine here is much more interesting than in the city,” she said.

“GPs here have a lot more responsibility … and because the specialists aren’t available.

“It is a nice town and it’s nice being in a practice that works with the hospital and you can be involved in every aspect of the community’s health care.”

“It’s a whole other world of medicine than in the hospital,” added Dr Cummings, who previously worked at Westmead Hospital.

“You tend to lose things in medicine when you aren’t doing it, so we get to do all of it.”

The GPs in Narromine work collaboratively with nurses, and allied health staff such as dietitians, podiatrists, mental health workers, psychologists, diabetes educators, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists and Aboriginal health workers in the community and hospital settings.

“With the health care workforce ageing, it is vital that the incumbent doctors pass on knowledge and experience of rural health care practice to new GPs and allied health personnel,” practice manager Wendy Harding said.

Dr Chowdhury said the interaction with older patients was also great experience.

“This GP centre is very good, my colleagues are very good and the Macquarie River is beautiful!” she added.