New GP returns to Blue Mountains, first inspired by his childhood doctor

After graduating from the University of New England (UNE), supported by the Blue Mountains Health Trust, Thanjon Michniewicz has taken up a GP position at Faulconbridge Health Centre, just down the street from his old school, Faulconbridge Public.

"It's a community that I really care about, and to have been offered the opportunity to work here during my [GP] training, and to return to a job here, has been a real joy... to give something back to my community," Dr Michniewicz told the Gazette.

Dr Michniewicz was first inspired to pursue medicine by his childhood GP, Linda McQueen, of Hazelbrook General Practice.

The Gazette reunited the two doctors at Hazelbrook on September 20, where they caught up and shared professional wisdom.

"I don't think anyone enjoys their childhood immunisations, but I would say that there'd be no better GP," Dr Michniewicz said.

"She's someone who you really imagine as a 'do-it-all', wise, knowledgeable and thoroughly approachable and helpful sort of generalist... No matter how weird, wacky, serious or lighthearted the problem that you had, [she] had an answer.

"So I think that kind of breadth of skill, and breadth of knowledge, really makes someone like Dr Linda McQueen an exemplar of general practice, and all that general practice can be."

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Dr McQueen is a long-time Blue Mountains resident, who moved to the area during her medical training and decided to remain afterwards to practise locally.

She said a major attraction of working as a GP is "the connection with people". "It's such a privilege, you see people and their families through really tough times and really good times.

"And that's the thing that I think keeps all GPs in their practice, they really like that close connection with the families and their communities.

"I'm so amazed at the resilience of human beings, some people go through such dreadful things and yet just pick themselves up and keep going. It's really inspiring."

Dr Michniewicz has returned to his roots at a crucial time for the Mountains, as local practices are facing a widespread shortage of regular GPs.

"We desperately need more GPs. General practice has been underfunded for so long by the health system, and less and less graduates are choosing general practice," Dr McQueen said.

"So it's wonderful to have a Mountains person who went away, did the training and is coming back, it's great.

"He's one of a declining number of medical graduates who choose general practice... Most homes are very short of GPs."

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners recorded that in 2019, only 15.2 per cent of medical students chose general practice as their first preference for a career.

Lizz Reay is CEO of Wentworth Healthcare, the provider of the Nepean Blue Mountains Primary Health Network.

She told the Gazette: "If we don't increase the number of medical graduates choosing general practice as a career path, then we won't ever solve the GP workforce problem. We will just keep shuffling doctors from region to region.

"We need to make sure that new medical graduates are getting adequate exposure to general practice as a specialty and support investment in new funding models through MBS reform to make general practice more sustainable and appealing to new doctors."

According to Ms Reay, the current GP catchment and Modified Monash Model (MMM) classification system is causing barriers to GP recruitment, as it does not fully meet the needs of outer metro MMM1 areas such as the Blue Mountains.

Katoomba is more than 100 kilometres from the Sydney CBD and yet is classified as MMM1, the same as Sydney.

"We believe that the Upper Mountains area should be reclassified as MMM2 so that practices can recruit [more doctors]. Katoomba does not have what a major city has to offer in terms lifestyle, and yet they are competing with Sydney to attract GPs," Ms Reay said.

Federal member for Macquarie Susan Templeman told the Gazette: "General practice is the backbone of our health system and rebuilding it is the highest priority for the government."

Ms Templeman announced on September 21 that almost $1.2 million in funding has been distributed between 44 general practices around the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury, as part of a Labor government grants program.

"In addition to the GP grants, the government is taking a variety of measures to tackle the GP shortages including the 60-day dispensing that will ease the demand of GP appointments for people with chronic health conditions," Ms Templeman said.

"We're also working to expand general practice by significantly increasing incentives for general practices to employ a range of health professionals to provide team-based primary care."