If the residents of George Town had any doubt that doctor Amanda Clifford would stick around after she completed her GP training those doubts have been firmly laid to rest.
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Amanda and her husband Mitch are about to build their dream home at Low Head and they’re already discussing local schools for their four-week old baby boy Liam.
The couple met while Amanda was interning at the LGH in her former home town of Launceston and during the third year of her degree in medicine she gained practical experience at the George Town Medical Centre.
I enjoyed it so much I came back and worked extra days in my summer break, during my fourth year and I worked as a registrar in my final year last year.
“I enjoyed it so much I came back and worked extra days in my summer break, during my fourth year and I worked as a registrar in my final year last year,” she said.
“I’d always been interested in obstetrics, with the aim of specialising in that field, but I soon realised that general practice in a small community like George Town is not all about dealing with coughs and colds, it’s so much more interesting and varied and I realised that general practice is what I wanted to do and I really get to extend myself,” she said.
Now working through her general practice training with General Practice Training Tasmania, Amanda is firmly entrenched in the seaside town.
“It’s very much a family practice - and I’m loving the continuity of care I can give to patients – often the wife, the husband, the kids, the grandkids I see are all from the one family,” she said.
“There’s no shortage of variety with work either, we have to look after quite a few emergency situations from heart attacks to broken bones, and while obstetrics has gone on the back burner, I still get to look after mums and bubs.”
With a newfound knowledge that no school can teach, Amanda knows she will be even more in tune with new families going forward - just ask her about sleepless nights and breast feeding problems and the sympathy and practical advice will flow.
Mitch, who works part time at Peppers Seaport, also works at the practice part time.
Amanda sat her final exams last year and is on the cusp of being a fully fledged GP.
Of course the training does not stop there, and she will continue to strengthen her skills and build her knowledge through GP Training Tasmania.
“My mentors here are just an absolute wealth of knowledge and support,” she said.
“The practice partners Brian, Tim and Philip are there for me constantly, they give weekly tutorials and if I have a question about a patient they are straight in the room to help out.
“I passed my exams first go and that is because of the level of training I have received here in George Town.
“We work as a family and we’re treated like a family, and with that support I can continue training and feel supported as a new mum - I’ll be back a bit later in the year.”