General News
3 September, 2025
Arrival of the awesome foursome
PATIENTS visiting Ararat Medical Centre will see some new faces walking through the corridors with four doctors joining the team in the past month.
Doctors Chamini Senathunge, Ayomi Fernando, Zeinab Sadeghi and Rishu Saini are all excited about their new roles and for Dr Saini, it’s her second stop in Ararat following a short stint at Ararat Hospital and now she’s thrilled to be back.
“I started here as a GP registrar this month, it’s a part of my training program as a rural generalist,” said Dr Saini.
“I feel it’s a very welcoming community, that’s the reason I chose Ararat.”
Dr Senathunge is excited to broaden her knowledge and skills working with Ararat Medical Centre.
“I think this is the best opportunity to work as a rural GP and get a lot of experience,” she said.
Dr Fernando chose to leave the sunny north-east coast of New South Wales to further her career in Ararat.
“I'm originally from Sri Lanka and worked in Newcastle,” said Dr Fernando, who mentioned her fields of interest include surgical, adult medicine and women's health.
Originally from Iran, Dr Sadeghi also decided to leave the sunshine behind and head south to be part of the Ararat Medical Centre team.
“I was working in Airlie beach,” said, Dr Sadeghi.
“I was looking for a good place with a fellowship program.”
Dr Sadeghi was referred by friend who had worked at Ararat and praised the town.
“I heard about the supportive and friendly environment in Ararat, so I decided to apply for a job and fortunately they accepted.”
Ararat Medical Centre practice manager Garry Hurst said it was awesome to have four new doctors come on board at the same time.
“It's exceptionally good,” said Mr Hurst.
“It's just timing I think, it normally takes six months to 12 months by the time we start a recruitment process with a doctor, and it just happened that everyone's paperwork and form work came together at the same time.
“It wasn't exactly planned that way, having four start at once puts a bit more pressure on everyone for orientation and training and things like that.”
Despite some of the logistical challenges, Mr Hurst said the team is thrilled to have the new recruits on board.
“We will accept four doctors any time, and to have four women is extremely unique.”
Mr Hurst said Ararat Medical Centre’s commitment to education is a key part of why the practice is a desirable destination for doctors.
“We're proud of the reputation we do have in the industry,” he said.
“I think it's to do with the hard work the partners of the practice have put in when it comes to being a teaching practice, word gets around that we're used to having Deakin medical students, hospital interns, GP registrars and overseas trained doctors working towards their fellowship.
“There's a lot of practices who won't take those particular groups of people because it's hard work and sometimes there can be lack of reward too because you train them up, they get their fellowship and then move to metro areas.”
Mr Hurst feels Ararat presents as an attractive place for doctors to not only work towards establishing themselves but also to settle down and stick around long-term.
“We always tell our doctors come to Ararat, it’s two minutes to work, two minutes home again for lunch, two minutes back to work, six-to-eight-minute commute for the day rather than two hours, we hope that's a selling point,” he said.
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