From left: Dr Vichankorn Keyuranggul, Dr Peter Yong and Dr Rudy Lopes aim to boost the shortage of obstetricians in the south east.By Sarah Schwager
A SHORTAGE of obstetricians in Greater Dandenong in the past few years has been overcome with three medical professionals situating themselves in Noble Park.
Dr Rudy Lopes, Dr Vichankorn Keyuranggul and Dr Peter Yong moved to the area this year to help fill a gap in the southeast.
“It’s very rare that you can get three (obstetricians) in one year,” Dr Keyuranggul said.
“Previously there was one person for six years.”
Dr Lopes said the reason why there was such a shortage of obstetricians was partly to do with the fact that insurance premiums and litigation had skyrocketed, with people getting more and more wary about higher insurance premiums.
Dr Keyuranggul said the shortage was not so much a problem in the area alone but across the state.
But he said the deficiency of obstetricians in the southeast was relative to the population growth.
He said due to the high demand, the waiting list at somewhere like Dandenong Hospital was around two years for a hysterectomy.
Dr Lopes said the number of pregnancies in the area was actually increasing.
“The reason why they put a hospital in Casey was because of the population growth,” Dr Lopes said.
There are currently about 1100 obstetricians in Australia and Victoria takes 11 trainees each year, although only a small percentage of these go on to become obstetricians.
“Five years ago there was a big push to encourage women to go through the training,” Dr Keyuranggul said.
“Places like the Mercy Hospital had all women trainees. But they found that not all of them wanted to do fulltime (study).
“So, at the time when there were supposed to be five or six consultants come out, there weren’t any.”
Dr Keyuranggul said because of these reasons, there was a big gap between their generation and the generation before, with the youngest in their 50s.
“When they go there’s only going to be us three and one gynaecologist in the area,” he said.
Dr Lopes graduated from medical school in 1994 and started training to become an obstetrician in 1998. The course takes a minimum of six years to complete.
Dr Yong began private practice in 2003. He came from Singapore this year after studying in the UK.
Dr Keyuranggul started practising in 1998 but decided to shift his practice to Noble Park this year.
He said their patients ranged from Pakenham to East Bentleigh residents with some coming from as far as Kooweerup and Phillip Island.
“A lot of them are just grateful to get in half the time,” Dr Keyuranggul said.
Dr Lopes said he and Dr Yong held a clinic at Casey Hospital once a week and were also oncall to provide last minute help at the hospital after hours.
“The services are actually out here, the hospitals are out here,” Dr Lopes said.
He said it was difficult to get obstetricians to do oncalls because of the hours and the remuneration.
He said for this reason many obstetricians decided to stay in the office, focusing on their subspecialties.
But Dr Keyuranggul said despite the poor remuneration they all felt their services were needed.
“We don’t do it because we feel it’s going to put us in a life of wealth,” he said.
Dr Lopes said if they did have to go to hospital, they gave up half a day’s work.
“But we feel that’s required,” Dr Lopes said.
“The public system trained us therefore we’re giving back to the system.
“But not everyone thinks like that,” he said.
