Charlotte Varcoe
A NEW skin care specialist has joined the team at Mount Gambier Family Health.
Dr Todd Storm recently joined the team after spending a number of years practicing in Adelaide.
After visiting the region multiple times to see friends, Dr Storm discovered a job opportunity at the clinic.
Speaking with SA Today, Dr Storm said moving to the local clinic allowed for a “different way” of doing things.
“The work here is a little bit different, the old clinic I worked at had almost purely a melanographer model where they were running at full capacity with six rooms with melanographers seeing people and taking lots of photos,” Dr Storm said.
“The doctor would then be bouncing between those rooms and reviewing the images whereas here it is more personal and you are getting more time with the doctor.”
Dr Storm said there was also more time to look over the patient’s skin and complete the screening process itself which resulted in needing less photography.
“We are trying to get to that middle ground where we would use photography where it is helpful, which is more for people with moles or those who have a strong history of melanoma but not taking too many images that creates an administrative overload,” he said.
Dr Storm said he had been visiting the region for many years prior to moving to Mount Gambier/Berrin after befriending his colleague Dr Rowan Kruysse at medical school.
Dr Kruysse welcomed Dr Storm to the team, stating having more specialists on board would also take the pressure off general practitioners in town.
“The general practitioners in town do amazing things by looking at hearts, lungs, diabetes, colds flus and more so being able to take some of these things off their back is great,” Dr Kruysse said.
“The general practitioners are a great resource but if somebody has something they are concerned about or which would be early melanoma then they can come to a place like here where we are doing it day in and day out.
“We can then see it quickly which should take some of the workload off the general practitioners.”
Clinic director Dr Richard Try also welcomed Dr Storm to the team after starting the clinic in 2017 on his own.
Now with a team of three, Dr Try said waiting lists should ease up with more patients being able to be seen.
“Having three doctors on board allows availability and to have that flexibility if a changing spot pops up quickly,” Dr Try said.
“We can actually see people in a reasonable timeframe and we have always tried to do that if someone has a new spot they are worried about but having more doctors means we can get more people in quicker.”
He said having the team of three would also allow for more stability in the future.
