Doctors
Dr Emil Djakic
Has been a practice partner at Patrick Street Clinic for the past 23 years and currently consults at both the Ulverstone and Penguin sites. His interests are in all areas of Family Medicine. He is a Tasmanian graduate and was originally from Launceston.
Dr John Fisher
Qualified at the Middlesex hospital, London, and worked in England, New Zealand and Malawi. Has worked at the Patrick Street Clinic since 1991 with interests in musculoskeletal medicine and managing chronic disease.
Dr Stefan Delitzsch
Qualified and also worked for many years in Germany and the UK and relocated to Australia in 2001. He is interested in all aspects and challenges of General Practice and happy to assist you in looking after yourself with a holistic approach.
Dr Nerrelie Cann
A local University of Tasmania medical graduate, returned with her young family to the North West Coast in 2003. Nerrelie completed her General Practice Training in Victoria in the 1990s and worked in general practice in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Nerrelie enjoys working with both individuals and families to optimise health outcomes across a breadth of areas but with a particular interest in the interaction of physical and mental wellbeing. Ulverstone now feels like home and Nerrelie is embracing the change which comes with young adult children heading off to study.
Dr Lizzi Shires
Trained and practiced as a GP in the UK before relocating to the North West Coast 14 years ago. She works part time and spends her other time teaching the medical students at the Rural Clinical School. She has interests in all aspects of General Practice and has a particular interest in Chronic Disease management.
Dr Justin Chipman
Was born in Hobart and trained through the University of Tasmania. After nearly 8 years as a hospital doctor (Tasmania, South Australia and UK) he entered General Practice and is now well settled and established in North West Tasmania. He provides comprehensive General Practice care, including aged care and mental health management.
Dr Saminda Rubasinghe
Dr.Saminda Rubasinghe graduated in 2004 from the university of Ruhuna Sri Lanka. He moved to Tasmania from Sri Lanka in 2012. He became a fellow of Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 2016. He has been working as a GP since 2006. While he was in Sri Lanka he completed his training in anaesthesia in 2008 and then worked as a part time anaesthetist in Kandy Sri Lanka until he moved to Tasmania. He has special interest in skin cancer medicine and has completed professional certificate in the subject. He enjoys playing badminton and mountain bike riding.
Dr Diana Webster
Graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1997. She completed her Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the UK in 1998 (DRCOG). She moved to Queensland in 2000. She completed specialist anaesthesia training in 2008, and worked as a staff specialist till 2013. She then moved to Tasmania and retrained in General Practice, working in Ulverstone and Devonport. She obtained her Fellowship in general practice in 2016. She enjoys the breath of patient care that general practice involves and has interests in travel medicine, women’s health and teaching.
Dr Margret Oetterli
Is a local having grown up on the North West Coast, educated in Wynyard and Devonport. She studied medicine at UTAS in Hobart followed by a period of working and travelling across the state, mainland and overseas. The hankering for the wilds of Tasmania saw Margret return to the North West coast. She bought a farm with her husband, Simon and they started a family. She worked for over 30 years in general practice in Latrobe. More recently Margret moved to Patrick Street Clinic. She also works part-time as a medical educator teaching GP registrars on the NW Coast. Margret enjoys the bush, travelling, gardening, cooking and eating with friends.
Dr Elisabeth Robin
Graduated from Flinders University in South Australia, where she studied in both Adelaide and the Northern Territory. She started her work as a doctor in the Top End at the Royal Darwin Hospital prior to moving to Tasmania for a weather system more in tune with her Canadian heritage. She has completed her specialty training in General Practice in Tasmania. Her interest areas are general medicine and preventative health, women’s health, family planning and paediatrics.
Dr Debra Chandler
Dr Debra Chandler
Debra completed her Bachelor of Medicine in Newcastle, NSW in 1993, followed by a Diploma of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1996, and her Fellowship of the Australian College of General practice in 1999. She has worked in a number of rural locations around NSW, Queensland and Tasmania. She has an interest in skin cancer management and is happy to perform minor excisions. She can offer shared antenatal care, and has done extended mental health care training. Debra and her husband George have lived and worked in China from 2009-10 and again in 2013-16. She can speak conversational Mandarin.
Dr Jo Chaffey
Dr Chaffey grew up locally on the NW coast and studied at the University of Tasmania.
She then spent a decade working in rural and regional areas in VIC, NSW, QLD, NT and WA before returning home in 2020 with her young family.
She has a particular interest in women’s health, family planning (including medical termination of pregnancy), preventative health and paediatrics.
Dr Darren Briggs
Darren completed his training in General Practice with advanced skills in Emergency Medicine after moving to NW Tasmania in 2011. Now calling the NW home, it is here he enjoys the challenge and diversity of General Practice and the advantages of a rural lifestyle in a beautiful region.
Increasingly he has become interested in how to best provide health care into the future with increasing chronic disease, aging population, and workforce shortages. He sees prevention as key, yet often undervalued by government.
Dr Mohan Rajakaruna
Graduated from University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka. Since arriving in Australia, Dr Mohan Rajakaruna has worked in different hospitals in Tasmania & interstate as a medical practitioner prior to general practice.
Dr Charlotte McKenzie
Darren completed his training in General Practice with advanced skills in Emergency Medicine after moving to NW Tasmania in 2011. Now calling the NW home, it is here he enjoys the challenge and diversity of General Practice and the advantages of a rural lifestyle in a beautiful region.
Increasingly he has become interested in how to best provide health care into the future with increasing chronic disease, aging population, and workforce shortages. He sees prevention as key, yet often undervalued by government.
Dr Hany Hassan
Darren completed his training in General Practice with advanced skills in Emergency Medicine after moving to NW Tasmania in 2011. Now calling the NW home, it is here he enjoys the challenge and diversity of General Practice and the advantages of a rural lifestyle in a beautiful region.
Increasingly he has become interested in how to best provide health care into the future with increasing chronic disease, aging population, and workforce shortages. He sees prevention as key, yet often undervalued by government.
Dr Nilushka van der Walt
Nilushka van der Walt is a GP registrar who graduated from the University of Notre Dame, Sydney in 2016. She is experienced in paediatric medicine having worked as a hospital registrar for a number of years in NSW, QLD and TAS. Further to this she has a developing interest in women’s health and public health.
She grew up in New Zealand and has a passion for regional/rural medicine. In her spare time she loves to spend time with her young family and explore the beautiful walks and beaches in Tassie.
Dr Samuel Brandsema
Sam was born and raised on the North-West coast. He completed his Medical Bachelor and Bachelor of Surgery in Tasmania in 2016 and fellowship with the Royal Australian College of General Practice was obtained in 2023, and he is now finalizing his fellowship in Advanced Rural General Practice.
Sam is interested in all mental and physical illness across all populations, but has a specific interest in palliative medicine, obtaining a Diploma of palliative medicine with the Royal Australian College of Physicians in 2021.