The doors on their Treelands Drive premises have been open more than three weeks and now Yamba Doctors are proud to welcome well known female GP Julia Fortes to the practice.
Practice Manager Casey Srianandarajah said Yamba Doctors was very fortunate to have Dr Fortes join the practice to offer women’s health services to compliment the services offered by Dr Vy Srianandarajah.
“We are very lucky to have a female doctor on board, Dr Fortes, who is working part-time dealing with women’s health issues only,” she said.
“Dr Fortes is from the UK, but she has been working in the area for some time, she was up at Clarence Medical for a while and she’s worked at Maclean in Union Street as well.
“She is quite well known locally, people know her.”
Dr Fortes grew up in the UK and went to medical school in Newcastle upon Tyne.
At this stage, Mrs Srianandarajah said Dr Fortes will be holding women’s health clinics on average monthly, with bookings essential.
“The 24th of February is her first day, and it’s fairly full, and then she will be back again in the middle of March,” she said.
“Any woman wanting to see Dr Fortes is advised to book as soon as possible.”
Casey, who grew up in the Lower Clarence and returned home to be closer to family, said her young family absolutely love the North Coast lifestyle after living in Sydney.
She said the response from locals since Yamba Doctors opened in January had been wonderful.
“We got a very, very big response in our first week and we were quite inundated, which was great, but it has slowed down a little bit over the past couple of weeks,” she said.
In less than a month, Mrs Srianandarajah said Yamba Doctors had received some fantastic feedback from customers.
“We love Dr Vy,” one customer wrote.
“We’ve had a wonderful experience at your practice, thank you. We are very impressed,” another customer wrote.
“Great surgery. Dr Vy is lovely and great with kids. Thank you.
“Dr Vy is the nicest doctor I have ever talked to.”
Currently, Dr Vy is taking patients and bookings can be made through Yamba Doctors on 4331 2707 or online via HotDoc.
Casey said Yamba Doctors was looking to recruit another GP to join their team, but attracting a doctor to live and work in Yamba was a bit of a challenge.
“You’d think it would be easy to get a doctor to come and work in a place like Yamba, but many doctors don’t want to leave the city, where they may have family,” she said.
Bookings for Yamba Doctors can be made online through HotDoc.
For more information visit www.yambadoctors.com.au.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 15 February 2023.
