Dr Hamze Hamze arrived in Moree in 2013 as a GP registrar, four years on he’s passionate about living in Moree and working at Pius X Aboriginal Corporation, where he is also a GP supervisor.
Cultural diversity is just one of the things that Dr Hamze enjoys about living in Moree.
“I didn’t really know what to expect at first. We ended up staying because it’s just so great in terms of the community … really nice people, generous and very welcoming.
“When I first started my training, I felt this is really what I wanted, I felt very comfortable.
“It’s not just my personal experience, I came here with my wife and one son, now we have three kids. If my wife didn’t like it here we wouldn’t have lasted this long,” Dr Hamze said.
Dr Hamze recommends training in both a rural area and in an Aboriginal health training post.
“The GPs [at Pius X] definitely get involved in the local Aboriginal community and GP registrars get a much better understanding of the medical and social problems, it gives you a really good understanding of what things are like and why.
“There are a lot of things that are common aspects of general practice regardless of the culture. That’s what attracted me to this job more than anything else – the fact that you actually form a relationship with patients and often with their families,” he said.
Becoming a GP supervisor wasn’t something Dr Hamze had planned to do, but when Pius X wanted train GP registrars and there wasn’t a supervisor available, he agreed to step up. He’s now making the most of the resources available to GP supervisors.
“Medical knowledge is not the problem, it’s learning to be a good supervisor.
“The registrar we have at the moment is term 4. By the time we have more junior registrars I will have gained more experience as a teacher,” Dr Hamze said.
There’s also been an unexpected benefit in living in Moree, Dr Hamze had thought he was the only person in the world with the same first and surname. That is, until he moved to Moree – he has met two other people in the same predicament.
“I’m never going to forgive my dad for my name, I get asked about 10 times a day why I have the same first and surname,” Dr Hamze said.
