GP gives good grade to on-campus medical career

It's not uncommon for general practitioner Dr Mark Newell to see university students who are making their first doctor's visit without family in tow. In these circumstances, he adds, these on-campus patients can be more inclined to air issues they otherwise might not.

For Newell, it's gratifying to play a part in helping unburden them of health concerns that can potentially incur stigma. "In a sense, they've often never really had a chance to have some health issues addressed," says Newell. "Particularly in mental health."

Newell, a GP at SwinHealth, Swinburne University of Technology's health and wellbeing service provider, says the vast majority of his role involves standard 15-minute consultations with the staff, students, campus visitors and general public who seek out the general practitioner medical clinic, nursing services and health promotion activities SwinHealth offers as part of its growing service.

Newell sees patients for everyday issues including gastro, respiratory problems and musculoskeletal issues, but his special interest in travel medicine is also valuable in his role, given the travel culture inherent in the university community.

"International students make up half our patients," Newell adds, "so doctors need to have their radars out for things like malaria, dengue fever and tuberculosis. And I've seen all three of those in Hawthorn."

Newell qualified to become a doctor at the University of Melbourne in 1982 and spent the next three years between Preston, Bendigo and Lismore. This preceded seven years in the UK, four in Sydney and one in Thailand, as Newell's medical career saw him become active in HIV care.

He completed his general practice fellowship exam in 2002 and also qualified as fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine (AFPHM) in 2013.

Today, Newell's SwinHealth role is concurrent with a committee role with health and safe travel advocates the International Society of Travel Medicine and a voluntary position conducting practice exams for doctors training to become public health physicians through the AFPHM (Newell was previously the Victorian regional education co-ordinator with the AFPHM).

Newell says SwinHealth has changed considerably since he began in general practice with the service in 2001.

"The clinic was very small then," he says. "We only had one consulting room and now we have six. It's incredible how we've grown."

Although Newell has enjoyed many turning points and developments in a successful medical career, he says he's also happy with his career as it stands now. "I'm getting to mid-to-late career by now and I have found a space that I enjoy working in," he says.