Timing Everything As New Doctor Flies Solo

Newcastle Herald

Saturday January 28, 2006

By FRANCES THOMPSON Upper Hunter Reporter

A COMBINATION of volunteers giving their time and labour and a doctor looking for a chance to go it alone has paid off for the Upper Hunter town of Aberdeen.

Dr Collins Oku-Oleng expects to open his surgery on Monday, long before the town's residents expected.

Aberdeen Progress Association and Chamber of Commerce secretary Lynne Walters said it was a lesson for any other country town that found itself without a general practitioner: "I am totally amazed by the response".

Dr Oku-Oleng will occupy the former medical centre, which was left vacant in October when medicos withdrew from the town because of a doctor shortage in Scone.

The community group began a recruitment campaign assisted by the Rural Doctors Network and the Hunter Rural Division of General Practice.

Ugandan-trained Dr Oku-Oleng was working in the western NSW town of Condobolin as part of a group of four doctors but wanted the opportunity to run his own business.

Mrs Walters estimated between $10,000 and $15,000 was donated in cash and in kind to refurbish the surgery.

Dr Oku-Oleng has been in Australia for four years and has become a citizen.

The 50-year-old father of four said Aberdeen offered him a chance to set up his own practice and "set my own rules and standards".

He also worked in the southern NSW town of Corowa and described working in the country as challenging because of the distances and isolation.

The big advantage in coming to Aberdeen was that the community was welcoming and had showed by its hard work that it was ready to accept him.

"Everything is set and running and we are ready to open the doors," Dr Oku-Oleng said.

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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