Shepparton Medical Centre
We’re here for you – open all year from Monday to Friday
(except public holidays)
03 5823 3100 or book online
The University of Melbourne Shepparton Medical Centre provides high quality, comprehensive primary healthcare to people living in and around Shepparton. The first purpose-built teaching clinic in Australia, the centre was developed to support the University's School of Rural Health, then known as the Rural Clinical School. Teaching and learning is therefore at the heart of the clinic's mission. All GPs working at the centre are enthusiastic, experienced doctors and medical educators.
The practice has a strong emphasis on delivering a high quality level of care in an atmosphere of mutual support, good communication and having fun. We value:
Mission Statement
To provide the general public of Shepparton & districts an excellent general practice service, within a financially self-sustaining facility while supporting a teaching environment.
Facilitating experiential learning, for primarily but not exclusively, medical students while delivering high quality patient care and maximizing the available time for learning opportunities.
About Us
The practice is an architecturally designed facility which prides itself on its welcoming environment and patient focussed, team based model of care. It incorporates and embraces the latest in computer technologies including access to the on-line resources of the Melbourne Medical School. The practice delivers patient care in a multidisciplinary, vertically integrated way and in addition to primary care (general practice), runs specialty clinics (including psychiatry, neurology, and infectious disease) and allied health clinics. Specialists, allied health, and practice nurse colleagues all contribute to teaching and team based care.
Facilities include individual consulting rooms for medical students and registrars, a well equipped teaching room ('student hub'), and procedure rooms. The medical centre is located on the University's Shepparton Campus and is opposite Goulburn Valley Health. GPs, medical students and GP registrars are scheduled to enable access to Grand Rounds and are encouraged to participate in the academic and professional development activities which regularly take place on site.
Shepparton is located two hours north of Melbourne in the heart of Victoria's 'food bowl', the Goulburn Valley. The town has excellent cultural and sporting amenities, and is close to the gourmet food regions and stunning scenery of the Victorian High Country.
"Students are our Future"
Welcome to the Shepparton Medical Centre
The Shepparton Medical Centre has 20 consulting rooms to facilitate parallel consulting, where students are responsible for assessing patients on their own prior to supervisor input. It offers the opportunity for high quality, efficient care provision and more effective teaching.
The teaching environment is enhanced by a well equipped onsite teaching hub for both formal teaching sessions and informal interactions between clinicians and students. The centre also has 2 well equipped procedure rooms and excellent facilities for practice nurse staff who make an important contribution to the team based model of patient care. Clinic staff are committed to a cooperative, multidisciplinary, model of care.
Interested in becoming part of the team? Contact us!
Doctors | |
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Dr Saif Aswad Dr Saif Aswad moved to North East Victoria in 2017 after working in Emergency Medicine in Sydney and Perth. Dr Aswad joins us to complete his final years as a GP Registrar, he enjoys all areas in General Practice and has a specific interest in Chronic Disease Management and Dermatology. | 
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Dr Robert Campbell Medical Director I enjoy the variety that comes from General Practice. No two days are ever the same. I have specific interest in preventative health, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and men's health in general. I want to help people to help themselves. Personal interests include rugby union (Go Melbourne Rebels!), walking, and keeping fit. Patients find me approachable and will warm to my sense of humour. | 
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Dr Belinda Jennings Dr Belinda Jennings was born and raised in Melbourne. Dr Jennings initially pursued a career in Pharmacy, completing a Bachelor of Pharmacy at La Trobe University, Bendigo. Dr Jennings worked as a Pharmacist in both community and hospital pharmacies before embarking on her medical career at Deakin University, Geelong. After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Dr Jennings completed her residency at Barwon Health Hospital, Geelong, gaining considerable experience in Surgey, Women’s and Children’s Health and Emergency Medicine. She has completed further study in a Certificate of Emergency Medicine and a Diploma in Child Health. Outside of work Belinda loves spending time with her husband and young family and exploring the great outdoors. | 
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Dr Elizabeth Kennedy I am interested in people and their story. I love listening and trying to get to the root of the problem. My specific interests are Women's Health, Sexual Health and Mental Health. Interests outside medicine are reading, being with friends and family and travelling. | 
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Dr Yen Pham Dr Yen Pham was born and raised in Vietnam. Dr Pham has a love for teaching and education, graduating from RMIT with a Bachelor of Science before completing a MSc and PhD in Biochemistry. She then continued with further study, obtaining a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at University of Sydney. Dr Pham completed her residency at Hornsby Hospital, gaining considerable experience in Child Health, General Medicine and Emergency Medicine. She currently holds a Diploma of Child Health. Outside of work Yen enjoys looking after her family and has a passion for cooking and gardening. | 
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Dr Samantha Phillips Dr Phillips is a local resident who completed her medical degree and training in both regional NSW and VIC. She enjoys working and living in rural communities, providing medical care for a wide range of patients. Dr Phillips joins us as a GP Registrar – a fully qualified doctor undertaking specialist training as a general practitioner. | 
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Dr Gracie Pun Dr Gracie Pun graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery, completing her internship in regional and rural Victoria. Dr Pun enjoys all aspects of general practice and is thrilled to return to Shepparton to complete her general practice training, joining some of her previous colleagues. In her person time, Gracie enjoys reading, swimming and bush walking. |  |
Dr Edmund Siauw I believe in working together with my patients and their carers to achieve their optimum health - this usually involves more than just medicine. I also aim to practice using only evidence-based approaches. My specific interests are preventative medicine particularly cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I have recently commenced a certificate course in skin cancer medicine through the Skin Cancer College of Australasia. I am trained in the use of dermoscopy to look for skin cancer and I am happy to perform skin checks and minor surgery when appropriate. I also enjoy talking with my patients about exotic food, soccer and travel! | 
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Dr Stephanie Tabner Dr Stephanie Tabner graduated at Hull York Medical School in the UK and has been working as a general practitioner in the UK for the past few years. Dr Tabner enjoys all aspects of general practice including Women’s Health, Aged Care, Minor Surgery, Emergency Medicine and teaching medical students. In her personal time, she loves skilling, travelling, the outdoors, live music and playing in a rock band. |  |
Nurses | |
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| Ms Allyson Callaghan Practice Nurse (registered nurse) | 
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Ms Gaynor Hobijn I love working in General practice for the variety of patients that we see and hopefully help. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when I have helped clients with preventative health, or when parents are relieved because their child's immunisation was less traumatic than they imagined. I enjoy working with other nurses and doctors and love the input that we can have in the care of clients. From pregnancy to the end of life, I just enjoy helping people and making a difference in a positive way. I enjoy going to the gym - practicing what I preach! Love spending time with my family and friends, especially coffee catch ups. | 
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Ms Jane Rinaldi I have had the privilege of working as a nurse for over 35 years. I have worked in a variety of settings, including hospital, community health, rural and remote areas, and general practice. My background is midwifery/lactation consultancy. My role now in general practice is preventative health care across all ages. A current focus is diabetes prevention and management – working to improve diabetes outcomes through building self management skills in our clients. I believe in living well with chronic illness. | 
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Ms Jan Wallace I have been a nurse in general practice for 15 years. I love the diversity of skills required in general practice - so different from working on the wards! I am passionate about immunisation, wound care, healthy lifestyle and QUIT counselling. My personal interests revolve around my family, travel and reading. | 
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Pathology |
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Goulburn Valley Health Pathology Collection Centre is co-located in our premise and offers the community access to a pathology collection centre Monday to Friday from 8.45am – 2.15pm. Outside of these hours, the nearest Goulburn Valley Health Pathology Collection Centre is at the Goulburn Valley Health hospital site. |
Allied Health | |
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Simon O’Keeffe | 
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| Ms Fran Smullen Mental Health Social Worker | 
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Visiting Specialist Physicians | |
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| Dr David Prentice Neurologist | 
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| Dr Joseph Saji Psychiatrist | |
| Dr Tom Schulz Infectious Diseases Physician | |
| Dr Liam Tjia Paediatrician |
Administration | |
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| Ms Alison McConkey Team Leader | |
| Ms Karah Bothwell Receptionist |
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| Ms Tameika Harrap Receptionist | |
| Ms Hannah Jones Receptionist | |
| Ms Narelle Parker Receptionist | |
| Ms Robyn Sutton Receptionist | |
| Ms Ashleigh Svoboda Receptionist |
Management | |
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| Ms Joanne Kinder Operations Manager | 
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| Ms Tracey Botterill Practice Manager |  |
Together, we strive to deliver excellent care:
Welcome to the University of Melbourne Shepparton Medical Centre
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We believe that healthcare is about so much more than a diagnosis and medicines. Health is about the whole person - our social, emotional, physical wellbeing. It's all connected. We're here to work with you to set and reach your individual health goals.
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Services
An overview of the general, specialist and allied health services available.
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Opening hours, schedule of fees & appointments
We offer our patients flexibility in accessing our services - we offer appointments from 8am Monday to Friday and Monday evenings - Online appointment bookings or telephone bookings - Enhanced priority access system
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Parking and access
Access to our premise and services.
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Meet your Team
Find out more about our individual doctors and nurses, including what they value about working in general practice, and what their professional and personal interests are.
We are a learning organisation - constantly evaluating what we do and how we do it. We believe that this is a prerequisite for being a good teaching organisation. We are a real general practice that treats teaching and learning as core business. We offer experiential learning - students and registrars are included in all facets of the service: The consulting room with doctors and nurses, staff meetings, clinical meetings, our back-of-house services and our service development initiatives. That is because being a GP and working in a general practice is about a whole lot more than what happens in the consultation. We aim to give our students a true sense of general practice's beauty - the simplicity of its concept and the complexity of its execution.
At the moment, we focus on medical students and GP registrars. However, we are now exploring whether we can offer a similar, high quality learning experience for nurses. We note that the federal government's freeze of Medicare and increasing discussion of a new payment mechanism point towards the introduction of medical homes and capitation. This is a funding model that incentivises efficient and effective provision of care instead of high throughput. We believe that the development of nurses to include care coordination is a critical step towards better primary care, particularly in a capitation model. Already, the role of primary care nurses has transformed - our nurses are health practitioners in their own right, with particular expertise in chronic disease prevention and management.
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For medical students
Each year, we deliver approximately 700 teaching sessions for medical students. We find that they come back as registrars - and we're quite proud of that. Find out what you should expect and what we expect from you - and browse what others' experiences have been.
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For GP registrars
We usually have between three and five registrars in our clinic, often two GPT1-2 and two GPT3-4 registrars. We aim to develop registrars into confident, collaborative GPs who value interactions with their peers and respect their nursing, allied health, physician and administrative colleagues. Find out what you should expect and what others' experiences have been.
We always look for improvements in what we do, and we're always keeping an eye out for innovative ideas that might work in our practice. We believe in a collaborative approach that crosses professional and organisational boundaries. We see community, patients and students as collaborators. To foster collaboration and innovation in primary care, we participate in and implement communities of practice, workshops, and networks.