Community & Business
22 March, 2023
2023 Ochre registrars enjoying their time in Oakey
Alex Schreiber and Ben Worrall have settled into their year-long placement in Oakey after joining the practice at the start of the year.
It’s a big year for two registrars at Oakey’s Ochre Medical Practice on Cherry Street.
Austrian-born Alex Schreiber and home-grown medicine graduate Ben Worrall have settled into their year-long placement in Oakey after joining the practice at the start of the year.
Alex says he’s loving the warmer climate in Australia after growing up in Central Europe.
“It’s been good. Everyone’s friendly. Everyone’s quite interesting,” he said.
Alex came to Australia from Austria via the UK to study Medicine at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.
There, he developed a love for Australia’s beaches, which has stayed with him ever since.
“I miss the surf,” he says ruefully.
“But the people here are more personal.”
Alex says that ultimately, doctors want patients to live their best and healthiest lives.
“The more open they are, all we want to do is just help,” he said.
Ben is a Toowoomba boy, who says he was looking for a more challenging career when he switched over to medicine.
Having made the journey down to the University of Wollongong to study in a rural-focused medical course, Ben spent several months on placement in Nowra, before an opportunity to work at the emergency department at the Toowoomba Hospital presented itself.
“I wanted to get back a bit closer to family, and was lucky enough to have an opportunity come up. (Working in Oakey) is fine,” he said.
“I’ve worked around the place in a previous career.
“I worked as an engineer for McCormack Industries in Aubigny and also at Brown Steel (in Torrington).”
Ben said he enjoys the unique of characters that walk though the door each day.
“I’m loving having a diverse range of patients, families, meat workers, farmers and military personnel who come in.
“You get to meet a whole lot of interesting people.
“(Medicine) keeps me interested. I have no time to get bored.”
Outside of work, Ben has five children and enjoys playing the guitar.
He says the most important thing to remember when coming to see your GP is that medical choices are ultimately up to you as a patient.
“I think the main thing that can be forgotten is that the onus is on the patient.”
