Dr Dumindu Dharmapala – ‘Dr Dumi’ for short – has swapped the bustle and anonymity of large hospital emergency departments in pursuit of a more in-depth connection with his patients.

Sri Lankan-born Dr Dumi earned his degree on home soil before spending nearly two years in an emergency room in Singapore. He then moved on to Blacktown Hospital in the Western Sydney Local Health District as Registrar in Emergency Medicine for 2.5 years.

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The move to Tenterfield was driven by a desire to now focus on longer-term treatment rather than dealing with the aftermath of accidents. He’s particularly interested in the non-communicable disease areas of diabetes, obesity, smoke, drug addition and similar.

“I want to be able to spend more time with my patients,” he said.

“Someone might come in just for a repeat script but if I dig a little into their history there may be other issues I can help with.”

Dr Dumi is settling here for at least the next two to three years, with his wife Nilupulie Karunaratne taking up a position in the reception area from March.

He has already introduced himself at Millrace and Haddington, and is just awaiting the paperwork to be completed to assume a VMO (visiting medical officer) role at Tenterfield Hospital.

He’s keen to establish outreach GP clinics in Deepwater and Wallangarra. The Deepwater clinic will operate each Sunday from the beginning of March. The Wallangarra one will probably be a Saturday half-day, either fortnightly or monthly depending on demand.

Visits to the clinics will be bulk-billed like those to the medical centre. Dr Dumi is also happy to do home visits.

The doctor’s been here less than a month but is already appreciating Tenterfield as a calm and quiet place to live and work. 

“The patients are nice and friendly too, compared to Sydney,” he said.