Coolangatta Medical Centre

Joanna completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Queensland, Brisbane in 2012. She completed her internship and junior doctor years at The Princess Alexandra, Hervey Bay and Ipswich Hospitals. Joanna was awarded her Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 2019.

Joanna is drawn to General Practice for its diversity and ongoing educational opportunities. She has a particular interest in integrative and preventative health and has commenced working towards her fellowship with the Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. She is also interested in women’s health, skin cancer medicine, mental health and nutritional medicine. For all new patients, she recommends booking a 30minute initial consultation.

Sylvie moved to Tweed Heads in 2017 after completing her Doctor of Medicine at The University of Sydney. Prior to medicine, she studied and worked as a Radiographer. As part of her medical training, Sylvie worked in remote communities in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, and with the Royal Flying Doctors in Broken Hill.

Sylvie has done extended training, completing the:

• RANZCOG Certificate of Women’s Health,
• Sydney Child Health Program
• Australian Skin Cancer College Certificate of Dermoscopy.

She also undertook an elective in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sylvie enjoys all aspects of General Practice. She is committed to providing comprehensive medical care to patients of all ages. Her special interests include;

• Women’s Health
• Antenatal Care
• Paediatrics
• Skin Cancer Medicine

In her spare time Sylvie enjoys spending time outdoors with her young family, cooking, surfing and bike riding.

Dr Mark Friel has moved to the Gold Coast with his immediate and extended family to enjoy the Gold Coast lifestyle, environment, and community. He has a young family of boys and girls and a wonderful wife.

He prides himself on his communication, using language that is appropriate for the situation including simple explanations to patients not familiar with complex medial jargon. Due to recently working in both private and public hospitals, he has strong working knowledge of the extended health service and how to navigate it effectively. He has a passion for music in all its forms and an interest in playing a variety of instruments. He is well aware that his musical performance skills are severely lacking.

Dr Mark Friel is Queensland raised and educated, completed a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University at the University of Queensland followed by a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

He has worked as a registrar in many of the hospitals in Southeast Queensland, in fields such as General Surgery and Intensive Care prior to completing his fellowship with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Dr Friel completed additional education and training with extended skills in ENT, a Masters in Perioperative Medicine through Monash and the Diploma of Child Health through Sydney University.

Special Interests: Women’s Health and Children’s Health, Lifestyle Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Skin Cancer Treatment.

Spoken Languages: English and Persian (Farsi).

Dr Fatemeh is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and has experience delivering various aspects of medicine. As an experienced holistic health practitioner, she has tailored her practice to meet the needs of families with young children, those with chronic diseases, and those interested in a holistic approach to wellness.

She has a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Sydney, and her passion has always been preventing and managing chronic diseases through lifestyle modification. Furthermore, she has experience detecting and removing skin cancer and performing skin surgical procedures such as excision of skin cancer.

Her passion for women’s and children’s health drives her work. As a mother of two young children, she cares for the entire family’s health and understands how diseases affect different family members differently. In her experience, Dr Fatemeh has diagnosed and managed chronic, nearly debilitating chronic complications of COVID-19 infection first-hand. Over the last couple of years, many people have struggled in many ways, and unfortunately, they still need mental and physical assistance. Dr Fatemeh’s passion for guiding people toward full recovery makes her knowledgeable and passionate.

With her approachable and caring nature, she assists patients in dealing with medical investigations and treatment in a way that minimizes stress, tension, and uncertainty. Additionally, she is happy to assist injured workers with medical compensation certificates and support them until they fully recover.

Dr Louise Badenhorst graduated from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 1995 before obtaining further skills and experience in England and Scotland. Dr Louise worked as a procedural GP in Botswana in a remote hospital before moving back to South Africa to work in private practice in 2002.

Dr Louise immigrated to Australia in 2008 and been working and living in Tamworth, NSW before making the sea change to Coolangatta in January 2022.

With over 21 years experience in General Practice, she enjoys all aspects of general practice with special interest in women’s health, antenatal care, paediatrics and chronic disease management.

Dr Michelle Conners grew up in South East Queensland and graduated from Notre Dame University in Fremantle in 2017 where she sought to gain experience in rural and Indigenous health as well as homeless healthcare. She then completed hospital training at the Gold Coast University Hospital gaining experience in a broad range of specialties including paediatrics, obstetrics, emergency medicine, mental health, general medicine and surgery.

Michelle enjoys the wide variety of General Practice and is interested in all areas of medicine, with a particular interest in child health, women’s health, preventative health and disability. Michelle and her family have settled down on the Gold Coast where they live on acreage and enjoy learning how to grow their own food and spend time in nature. In her spare time, she enjoys going to the beach, surfing, exercising and spending time with family and friends.

Dr Rocha is an Australian trained doctor with strong focus on helping her patients live well. She began her journey into health as a clinical psychologist caring for people suffering from refractory mental health problems and at risk of suicide; in Australia and in the remote and controversial island of Nauru. She later transitioned into medicine driven by the desire to support her patients more holistically. As a young doctor, she spent her time working in a busy Sydney hospital where she rotated across different specialities before settling down on the Gold Coast.
Today, Dr Rocha’s focus is on supporting her patients journey into improved health. As such, she aims to deliver evidence-based medicine to address acute or chronic medical problems while offering strategies and interventions that promote positive behaviour change, mental and physical health.
On a personal note, Dr Rocha is originally from Brazil and found herself on the Gold Coast, as have many, attracted by the beautiful waves and landscape. Besides surfing, her hobbies include yoga, travelling and spending time with the people she loves. Her special interests are:
– Mental health
– Paediatric medicine
– Womens health
– Chronic illness
– Geriatrics

Dr Russell O’Brien graduated Medical School at the University of Queensland in 2016. Since then, he has worked at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a range of roles including paediatrics, orthopaedics, emergency and general surgery. He moved back to the Gold Coast in 2019 to be closer to family.
Originally from the North Coast of NSW, Dr O’Brien loves the laidback culture of the Southern Gold Coast. His interests include sports and musculoskeletal medicine, paediatrics, antenatal care and skin cancer medicine. His philosophy is that medicine needs to be integrated with lifestyle in order to optimise health.
His interests outside medicine include soccer and playing the guitar. He spends his spare time exploring the beautiful Gold Coast and surrounds with his young family.
Special Interests
Sports and musculoskeletal medicine, paediatrics, antenatal care and skin cancer medicine
Russell has gained competenecy in Certificate of dermoscopy, professional certificate of skin cancer medicine, advanced cert skin cancer surgery

Dr Peter de Wilde is a GP with extensive knowledge in his field.

Beginning his work as a General Practitioner in 1996, Dr Peter de Wilde has over 20 years of experience– and puts this into practice with his patients.

Peter originally completed his basic medical degree in the Netherlands, after which he moved to the UK where he worked in ‘ears, nose, and throat’ for three years. Following his time in ENT, Dr Peter de Wilde completed his GP training in the UK in 1996. Since, Peter has worked as a GP in the Cayman Islands, Scotland, and Australia.

Dr Peter de Wilde’s special interests include skin and ENT (ears, nose, and throat.)

Dr Mary McDevitt has been in General Practice for over ten years.
Originally from New Zealand, she graduated as a registered nurse (Diploma general and comprehensive nursing Manukau polytechnic) and worked for four years in Auckland, and eight months in London in private hospitals, public hospitals, and in-home care nursing.

Mary decided to study medicine in 1991 at Auckland University, then onto Otago University Dunedin NZ in 1992. She graduated in 1996 with MbChb.
Mary worked as an intern in Dunedin before moving to Australia in 1998.
After working in Australia, Mary went back to NZ to work as an emergency registrar.

Mary moved back to Australia in 2004 and worked in various locations across Australia. Ballina, Murwillumbah, Moranbah, Gurriny Yealamucca Aborginal community in Yarrabah, and Dirranbandi are just a few of the areas in which she practiced.

Mary commenced working in Coolangatta Medical Centre in July 2015.

Mary’s Special interests include occupational medicine, emergency medicine in general practice, pediatrics and women’s health.

Dr Verbeek is an Australian trained GP with a special interest in holistic health and preventative medicine. Holistic medicine explores the many different facets that contribute to one’s health and aims to identify areas that may be driving illness rather than symptom management alone. This includes assessing the complex interaction between physical, psychological, genetic, environmental and social factors. Holistic medicine utilises a team-based approach to health care and combines the best available treatment strategies from conventional western medicine and evidence based natural therapies.

Dr Verbeek has completed training with the Nutrition Network in low carbohydrate diets and is undergoing further study through the Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental medicine and Institute of Functional Medicine. As a Mum of young children, she is passionate about working with both children and adults to create a personalised health plan to achieve a sense of wellness and vitality. She is an avid learner and can regularly be found attending conferences, courses, reading papers and listening to podcasts to increase her knowledge and expertise. She loves sharing that knowledge with her patients to empower them to manage their health.

In addition to providing all the regular GP services, Dr Verbeek may be able to assist with:

– Functional gut disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, constipation

– Conditions associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome, type 2 diabetes

– Preconception care and fertility management

– Contraception care including non-hormonal options.

– Children’s health including common infections, eczema and constipation

Dr Verbeek does not currently prescribe bio-identical hormones or perform IV nutrients/chelation therapy except for iron infusions .
As Dr Verbeek aims to understand the different factors that may be affecting the health, she recommends new patients schedule a 30min appointment. Emergency on the day appointments may be available for regular patients by phoning reception in the morning as these are not displayed online.

Please note a different fee structure applies for Dr Verbeek.

Dr Joshua Bush grew up in the local area and completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Queensland, Brisbane in 2011. He obtained a Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 2016.

Joshua has worked as a GP throughout Australia in both regional and remote settings. He enjoys all aspects of general practice, particularly Preventative Health, Men’s Health and Travel Medicine. He has a special interest and is experienced in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.

Joshua holds a Graduate Certificate of Travel Medicine from James Cook University.

Outside of work, Joshua enjoys spending time with his young family, supporting his favourite footy teams, running and playing golf.

Dr Kerrie Davis travels from Melbourne monthly to see patients with “Invisible illnesses”,(Chronic Fatigue, Dysautonomia, Hyper flexibility, Autoimmune disease, Fibromyalgia, MCAS, long COVID) She has a passion to see every patient be well enough to reach their full potential through traditional and emerging holistic treatments, incorporating lifestyle Medicine.

Dr Davis previously worked for 17 years as a procedural GP in remote Mansfield, Timbertop and the Mt Buller Snowfields. She has examined for the RACGP for 20 years and currently works on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. She has extensive past interests in Emergency, Adolescent and Sports Medicine, Anaesthetics, Paediatrics, Women’s Health, Cardiology and Orthopaedics.

Dr Jack O’Halloran grew up in Melbourne, Victoria where he completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science at Monash University and an honours year in Science at the University of Melbourne.

Following this, he moved to Sydney studying medicine at the University of Sydney and graduating with an MD in 2019. During his medical degree, he spent time on placement at a remote clinic in Ngukurr, NT as well as overseas in hospitals in Pokhara, Nepal and Kampala, Uganda.

Jack worked for 4 years on the NSW Central Coast in the public hospital system in areas including paediatrics, general medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, and has spent the past year working in a busy emergency department, obtaining his Certificate in Emergency Medicine qualification.

Jack, his wife and young daughter have recently moved to the Gold Coast to be closer to family and friends and are very excited to embrace the lifestyle and spend spare time at the beach with their 2 dogs. He also enjoys AFL, running and is keen to learn to surf.

Jack is looking forward to commencing at Coolangatta Medical as a GP registrar in 2024, working closely with the great team there to provide excellent healthcare to patients and families.

A Message from Dr Jason Blum

So, my GP days are now over after 37 years – with 8 of those years in this practice – and I am now working full time in operating theatres. This message is to say goodbye to all of my regular patients and a big thank you for the confidence in entrusting some of your health care to me. For some patients, that care commenced in 1988 in Southport. I hope I have helped and made a positive difference… I feel honoured to have been a part of your lives.

I believe that I have left you in the hands of some excellent doctors in this practice with whom you can confidently continue your care.

I wish you all the very best with your lives and your health.

Sincerely,
Jason Blum

Dr Ahmad is dedicated to the prevention, investigation and treatment of cardiac disease.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) affects many people and may cause angina (chest pain) and heart attack. Risk factors for heart disease include smoking, diabetes, obesity, family history and age. Book a consultation with Dr Ahmad and work with him to ensure the heart is as healthy as possible.

Dr Dominic Bannerman, the Practice Principle, graduated in 1997 and worked for many years in a variety of disciplines such as Paediatrics, Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Cairns Base Hospital and has worked throughout regional hospitals and clinics in Far North Queensland. Dominic has also worked overseas in Ecuador, India and Uganda.
Dominic holds an Advanced Diploma of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Dominic has a special interest in Paediatrics, Mental health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Tropical Public Health and Preventative Healthcare.
Dominic enjoys running and the great outdoors and is learning how to surf.