By Callum Ludwig
The Yarra Junction Medical Centre team has been recognised for their service, having been named as finalists for a plethora of categories at the 2024 Victorian Rural Health Awards.
Hosted by Rural Workforce Agency Victoria, the awards aim to recognise the significant contributions of health services to their rural communities each year, with the winners set to be announced on Thursday 20 June.
Yarra Junction Medical Centre Practice Manager Alison Dajlan said all the staff are really excited to be nominated for the awards and are blown away at being nominated in four categories.
“Being nominated as a team is really rewarding to all our wonderful staff and shows how well we all work together, it really rewards the hard work everyone has been putting in to provide the service to the Upper Yarra community,” she said.
“After a few tough years with doctors moving interstate or away from the area and followed by the flood in 2022, the clinic is back on its feet and doing what it wants to do by providing affordable healthcare to the community.”
The awards the Yarra Junction Medical Centre/its staff are up for are:
Chandana Gangodagama and his team for Outstanding Contribution by a Rural Multidisciplinary Health Team,
Alison Dajlan for Outstanding Contribution to Rural Practice Management,
Dr Gamini Colombage for Outstanding Contribution by a Rural GP or Rural Generalist and Outstanding Contribution by a Mentor/Supervisor.
Ms Dajlan said she started working at the clinic in 1989 having grown up in Yarra Junction and loved the people and the area, and is always advocating to bring more services to the town.
“Dr Gamini Colombage has been working at Yarra Junction Medical Centre for nearly 20 years and his dedication to his patients is inspiring which shows in his mentoring of doctors joining the practice,” she said.
“The admin team of myself, Erica, Lana, Terri and Nicole provide great support to the doctors and nurses and our experienced nurses Kate, Kim and Chanduni all bring their wonderful skills to work each day to expand the services at the clinic.”
The Yarra Junction Medical Centre faced tough times in only 2022 when the Modified Monash Model (MMM) introduced by the Federal Government in 2019 classified the clinic as in an MM2 area (regional centre) and not a Distribution Priority Area (DPA) for doctors looking for placement.
Due to the travel required for doctors coming from suburban or metro areas and a few sudden departures, at one point the clinic was left with three part-time doctors.
Ms Dajlan said the Rural Healthcare Awards are an acknowledgement of the dedication and commitment to healthcare by people in rural areas and that rural healthcare centres are vital to rural communities.
“Being an hour from a hospital, we see a lot more emergencies than clinics closer to hospitals, patients often find it difficult to travel when injured or unwell and often present to the clinic as their first point of contact,” she said.
“Most minor injuries can be dealt with at the clinic with only major injuries being forwarded off to hospital for specialist treatment,”
“Providing this level of care can be expensive but it is vital we are able to provide it to the community, the clinic owners appreciate this and have updated a lot of the old equipment and purchased some new monitors and equipment on the advice of the nurses or doctors.”
The Yarra Junction Medical Centre is also committed to remaining a bulk-billing practice.
Since being reclassified under the MMM, the Yarra Junction Medical Centre team has been replenished and also joined by further specialists.
Dr Michael Jones and his rural cardiology team have joined, a new endocrinologist will soon begin offering consulting monthly to save local residents a longer trip down the line for specialist appointments, dietician Will Jenkins, counsellor John Cronin and podiatrist Graham Glenister also consult from the clinic and Kay and Deb from Dorevitch pathology also provide clinic and pathology services.
