By EMMA SUN
A MOUNT Evelyn medical clinic has given a group of Chinese doctors a glimpse into the way general practitioners work in Australia.
The program, run by Monash University, gave 13 doctors of various backgrounds and expertise a chance to see the workings of the Mount Evelyn Medical Surgery and take what they learn back to their country to teach other doctors.
Associate Professor Lyn Clearihan, who runs Mount Evelyn Medical Surgery with her husband Dr Anthony Palmer, hosted the doctors for a day at their clinic.
“General practice as a concept there is known and developing, but it’s still in its infancy and there’s not a strong acceptance of it as a specialty,” Dr Clearihan said.
“They’re trying to elevate it to a specialty status like it is in other countries, so that it can increase the level of primary care delivery and services in the community.
“The visit was really to give them the opportunity to talk one-on-one with a few patients themselves, which is really nice because they struggle a lot with building trust with their patient base.”
Shenzhen based Dr Charles Feng said it was interesting to learn about the differences between the way GPs work in the two countries.
“I think the GPs here have quite a broad skillset, they can manage and tend to each patient’s basic medical needs, no matter what age or what gender whereas the GPs in China work on more of the long-term illnesses,” he said.
