Our gain is their loss

ADDING TO THE LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE WE NEED... Dr Hamid Pirouznia is an orthopaedic doctor from Iran now at GV Health. Photo: Steve Hutcheson
ADDING TO THE LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE WE NEED… Dr Hamid Pirouznia is an orthopaedic doctor from Iran now at GV Health. Photo: Steve Hutcheson

Shepparton is an established multicultural centre and growing, with migrants now representing some 90 different countries of origin.

Some come here through hardship, others come here and decide that Australia presents a good balance between climate, the people, the stability and the opportunity.

Dr Hamid Pirouznia had been an established orthopaedic doctor in his home country of Iran before venturing to Australia, initially as a visiting fellow in 2010, deciding that Australia had all the characteristics that appealed to him.

Dr Pirouznia began his Australian journey with his young family at Bendigo Health where he spent the next two and half years after his arrival.

For doctors trained overseas, the Australian medical profession, no matter their level of experience, requires them to undergo further training in Australia to satisfy local medical standards.

Coming from a family of medical professionals, his wife practiced as an obstetrician, his father is a cardiologist now in Canada, his father-in-law is an ophthalmologist, his sister a dentist, is also in Canada. Canada was a migration option for the doctor however the weather, the cold in particular, was against it.

GV Health has had the benefit of Dr Pirouznia now since 2012 as an orthopaedic doctor. He deals in bones and breaks. His work might include doing hip or knee replacements when as we age, ours wear out. It might be setting a broken bone or screwing plates to those that need it.

While GV Health is growing, with the new buildings, it will have a need for hundreds of new staff covering all aspects of medicine giving the community a health benefit we need. Dr Pirouznia is one of many who will make that journey to Australia and call it home and like him, we will have the need to call upon many more of his kind.

But while he has adapted to the country and all of the characteristics that make it such a great place to live, he is still at heart an Iranian. A place where his heritage lies, his family remains there. He is like all of us, Australian yet a foot still in his place of origin. As can be said of many in our community, our gain is their loss.