F
or nearly two decades, Dr Manish Bhasin has worked as a GP, seeing patients at different stages of their lives and watching their healthcare needs change with them.
A child may need vaccinations and preventive care. A teenager may need help with emotional health or contraception. By middle age, conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure become more common. For older patients, physical health is often closely tied to psychological and social wellbeing.
It is this experience that has shaped Bhasin’s latest venture: a new health hub in Springvale South bringing general practice, mental health, radiology, allied health and specialist services under one roof.
For Bhasin, it is also the latest chapter in a journey that began well outside Australia. He completed his postgraduate medical training in the UK and worked there as a GP for two years before moving to Australia in 2008.
“Frankly speaking, the Australian weather and cricket were a big attraction,” he says. But so was the opportunity to work in private practice with greater autonomy than the UK system offered.
He set up his own medical company and spent the next 18 years working mainly across the Mornington Peninsula. As managing several sites became increasingly difficult, a different idea began to form: why not bring multiple medical services together in one place?
That idea is now a reality in Springvale South. On 29 August, Bhasin opened Health Hub, offering bulk-billed general practice; allied health services including physiotherapy, exercise physiology, osteopathy and Pilates; radiology including X-rays, CT scans and ultrasound; and mental health services including psychology, group therapy and TMS treatment. Specialists in geriatrics, gynaecology and surgical fields are expected to join soon.
The original plan was for a GP and allied health clinic, but it grew as Bhasin spoke to colleagues. Mental health kept coming up, particularly the shortage of comprehensive psychiatric services in the area.
“With the rise in mental health issues and the lack of proper full-fledged psychiatry services,” he says, “providing on-site services might be a great asset to the local population.”
The choice of Springvale South was straightforward. Bhasin lives locally and knows the area and its healthcare needs. The centre is also close to public transport, making it easier to reach for patients, staff and doctors.
Springvale and the surrounding suburbs are home to people from many cultural backgrounds, including large migrant communities. Bhasin himself speaks Hindi and other North Indian languages. One of the doctors speaks Mandarin, while staff members speak Vietnamese and Cambodian languages. “We are trying our best to cater to all local demographics,” he says.
After years of treating patients and running medical practices, creating a multidisciplinary health centre has also taken Bhasin into new territory.
“At a personal level, it has been a good learning curve,” he says.
He now hopes the centre will make it easier for local residents to access different kinds of healthcare in one place — and serve the Springvale South community for years to come.
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