The Great Ocean Road on the south coast of Victoria is arguably the most beautiful coastal stretch in Australia. Featuring some amazing natural wonders, sandy beaches and stunning forests, this part of the world is truly beautiful and sacred to the people who choose to live here. For an area so renowned and so popular with tourists, it is difficult to believe that the task of finding doctors to live and work there has been so difficult.

Portland, a 5 hour drive west of Melbourne, is a community with a large elderly population and limited access to public transport. For Portland’s residents, it would be common to have to travel to towns a few hours away to get medical treatment.

Recently though, the region’s capacity to deliver more comprehensive health services has been boosted with the appointments of two new medical practitioners at Portland District Health. Dr Sobtchouk and Dr Rawal were placed in Portland in mid 2011 with the help of Telstra Business Award winning recruitment agency International Medical Recruitment (IMRmedical).

No one could be happier than John O’Neill, CEO of Portland District Health, who advised that “I am personally thrilled with the level of knowledge and health care service these doctors provide”. Mr O’Neil continued to say that “both doctors have been well received with both patients and staff”. He explained that Portland has been looking for suitably qualified doctors for over two and a half years now and was relieved when IMRmedical put forward two very suitable candidates for the region.

Dr Anatoli Sobtchouk is a General Medicine Consultant Specialist who works from the Portland Specialist Centre, and is currently the region’s only full time resident Specialist. Originally from Canada, Dr Sobtchouk has relocated to Australia with his wife, who is now also working at the hospital as a Registered Nurse and a Clinical Educator.

When asked what he likes most about his role, Dr Sobtchouk stated that there were “lots of opportunities to teach junior doctors as well as learn and expand my own knowledge and skills”.

Dr Sharad Rawal comes to Portland with extensive experience as a Senior House Medical Officer in Emergency Medicine. Dr Rawal said that he “wanted to expand (his) skills and knowledge in medicine” and “Australia always was one of (his) first choices for it”.

On Portland District Health’s two new recruits, Mr O’Neill says “IMRmedical has installed two great doctors into the region for its citizens to have full access, and it is of great benefit to receive their services”. With waiting times decreasing and the community not have to travel large distances to receive the appropriate health care, these placements will provide some much needed relief for the region and its residents.

Left to Right: Mr John O'Neill, Dr Anatoli Sobtchouk