Medicine with Meaning

Why Dr Madu Wickramasinghe has made Central Coast her practice and her people

Ask the patients of Victoria Street Clinic what makes their doctor special and the answers arrive quickly. Warm. Kind. A doctor who truly listens. And, perhaps the highest praise a busy GP can earn, a doctor who does not rush the appointment.

That doctor is Dr Madu Wickramasinghe. She has been a fixture in the Victoria Street Clinic since November 2012, and her story offers a neat answer to a question many doctors quietly ask themselves: “what could a rural career actually give me?”

Warm Welcomes and Watchful Ears

Dr Madu works full time and her days are as varied as her patients. Her special interests are aged care, chronic disease management, women's health, mental health, emergency medicine, skin conditions and paediatrics. In a region where people are living longer and staying active later, that is a very handy set of strengths to have close to home.

She speaks English and Sinhala, and the clinic door is open to both. It is a small detail with a big effect. A community is always richer for every voice in it, and a good doctor knows that the first step in healing is to listen.

A Long Road, a Local Life

Her path began in Sri Lanka, where she trained at the University of Ruhuna. After practising medicine overseas, she brought her skills to Australia and joined the Victoria Street Clinic. In 2014 she was awarded her Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the formal mark of a specialist GP.

That was a long road, and Ulverstone has been the lucky place at the end of it. Nearly fourteen years on, she is firmly part of the local landscape and Ulverstone is better for it.

Variety, Verve and a Very Full Day

Ask Dr Madu what she loves most about rural general practice and the first word is variety.

"As a rural GP, I am able to see a wide range of patients and manage many different health conditions."

In a highly specialised setting, a doctor sees one slice of medicine. In Ulverstone, she gets the whole cake. Every day brings something different, which keeps the work interesting and the learning constant. It has also made her, in her own words, "more confident and adaptable as a doctor."

Teaching Tomorrow's Doctors

Dr Madu's connection with the University of Tasmania has opened the door to teaching and research, and she is quick to say how much she enjoys both. Sharing what she knows with medical students and junior doctors is, she says, one of the most rewarding parts of the job. Teaching also keeps her sharp, because explaining something well means thinking about it afresh.

It is a lovely cycle, and a useful one for the whole region. Students and junior doctors who learn alongside a GP like Dr Madu see what rural practice really looks like: connected, collaborative and quietly brilliant. That is how a local health workforce grows.

Dinner Table Discussions

Joined-up health care, it seems, can be a family tradition. Dr Madu's husband, Dr Saminda Rubasinghe, is also a doctor, practising at the nearby Patrick Street Clinic, where his focus is skin conditions and minor surgical procedures, along with chronic disease and men's health. Two clinics, two sets of expertise and one very well-connected household.

They share a passion for their work, so one can only imagine the exploration of new clinical techniques examined around the dinner table. Pass the salt, and perhaps a hearty discussion on an article in the latest copy of Lancet.

The apple has not fallen far from the tree, either. Their daughter, Binithi, is a third-year medical student, and we are all very hopeful she will follow in her parents' footsteps, quite literally, and practise right here on the Central Coast.

Familiar Faces, Family Histories

The part she values most is hard to put on a timetable. It is time.

"Getting to know people beyond a single consultation makes general practice feel much more personal."

Over the years, Dr Madu has come to know her patients and their families. She has seen them through good seasons and harder ones, and she understands their circumstances without having to ask twice. Big-city medicine has its charms, but it rarely gets to follow a story from chapter one to chapter twenty.

For Dr Madu, that connection is the point. Knowing her work has a genuine impact on the local community gives her, in her words, a strong sense of purpose.

Balance Beyond the Consulting Room

Then there is the other half of the equation. Tasmania, it turns out, is rather good at the life part of work-life balance.

Dr Madu talks about the pleasure of the outdoors, the access to nature and recreation, and a more relaxed environment that helps her step away from the demands of the day. It has taught her to appreciate a healthy balance between her professional and personal life, and it is what makes rural practice so attractive to doctors who want a fulfilling career without giving up time for family, friends and their own interests.

Practice, People and Purpose

For any doctor wondering whether rural general practice could work for them, Dr Madu has had nearly fourteen years to test the answer. Variety, learning, meaningful relationships and a strong connection with the community all turn up for work every day, and the coast outside the clinic door is a rather nice bonus.

"It is about the people I meet, the difference I can make and the life I can build outside of medicine."

The North West coastline became home for Dr Madu a long time ago, and it has room for you too.

Dr Madu Wickramasinghe consults at Victoria Street Clinic, 39 Victoria Street, Ulverstone. Her Practice Manager is Karen Lind, pictured here with her.

Photos: Dylan Proctor