Come and experience it
Rather than asking doctors to make a major career decision from a conference stand, advertisement or telephone call, we are inviting them to come to Lakes Entrance and experience the opportunity.
During the Great Lakes Welcome weekend we will provide accommodation and meals, take our visitors on a scenic cruise, show them around Lakes Entrance and give them a comprehensive look through Cunninghame Arm Medical Centre. They will meet the Practice Principals, doctors and team and have plenty of opportunity to ask serious questions about what working at CAMC might actually look like. Partners and families will be encouraged to attend where possible because a move to a regional community is rarely a decision made by the doctor alone. Housing, employment opportunities for partners, schools, recreation, social connections and simply whether Lakes Entrance feels like somewhere a family could be happy all matter.
We want them to experience those things, not just read about them.
There is more than one way to join us
Our ultimate ambition is certainly to attract additional doctors who will build a long-term relationship with CAMC and Lakes Entrance. But we are not approaching recruitment as an all-or-nothing proposition. A doctor might initially join us for a trial period or locum placement. Someone may be interested in regular part-time or sessional work. Another doctor may be able to contribute through teaching or supervision, or by visiting Lakes Entrance regularly while continuing to work elsewhere. For others, a short-term arrangement could eventually become a staged relocation or permanent move.
Every one of those outcomes has value.
If we can increase appointment availability, strengthen our supervision capacity and give good doctors an opportunity to get to know CAMC, we are moving in the right direction.
Good news for patients now
There has also been some immediate progress.
CAMC currently has two visiting locum doctors helping increase appointment availability. That means if you have been putting off a routine appointment or health check, now is an excellent time to book in. We are also very pleased to welcome Dr Nicholas Wilkes back to Cunninghame Arm Medical Centre. The additional doctors provide welcome short-term support while the longer-term recruitment campaign continues.
The campaign is progressing
The journey has been deliberate. The Longest Waiting Room made our doctor shortage visible and demonstrated just how strongly the community supported the campaign. GPCE Melbourne allowed us to take that story directly to doctors and have meaningful, one-on-one conversations about CAMC and Lakes Entrance. The Great Lakes Welcome is the next step: bringing interested doctors here and allowing them to decide for themselves whether there is a professional and personal opportunity worth pursuing.
We would love one of those conversations to lead directly to a doctor deciding to make Lakes Entrance home. But success does not have to happen overnight. A weekend visit can lead to a trial. A trial can become regular sessions. Regular sessions can become a deeper relationship with the practice. And sometimes that can eventually become the long-term doctor our community needs.
That is why getting interested doctors here on 3 and 4 October is so important. We have spent months telling doctors what Lakes Entrance and Cunninghame Arm Medical Centre can offer.
Now we are going to show them.
