The Gympie region women’s health sector has received a big boost in the form of a travelling doctor specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology.

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Dr Robert North has made the commitment to expand from his Sunshine Coast base to take regular appointments locally at the Gympie Specialist Clinic in Channon St.

Dr North said he was inspired to service the Gympie region because of his opposition to centralising private health care.

“I used to be a GP in rural Victoria as a GP/obstetric so I was delivering babies, but unfortunately our service got closed,” he said.

“I wanted to keep practising obstetrics so I went and did more training, and my last two years of training were in Caboolture.

“I’ve got a rural background and I do believe in trying to keep services rurally rather than all the centralising, which is happening now.

“I’ve just started working on the Sunshine Coast, my main office is in Maroochydore and I live there.

“I would like to come up to Gympie and be another point of contact for women up there.”

Dr North said he was looking forward to providing a previously non-existent health care option for women in the Gympie region.

“There are other gynaecologists but none of them are doing obstetrics privately anymore.

“I’ve been told that there’s a need for it so I’m very happy to come up here and be a part of that.”

Appointments can be made with Dr North by contacting his office on 5443 4301.