Dr Mya Tun was born in Myanmar and graduated from the University of Medicine, Mandalay. She worked in Malaysia and had a brief stint in London when she was offered a position at the Mercy Hospital in Tasmania. Since moving to Australia in 2007, Dr Tun worked at tertiary hospitals including the Austin, Box Hill and Monash Health, but her love for working in a rural area was always her preference.
Mya took up a locum position at Wallan Medical & Specialist Centre and “fell in love with the clinic for many reasons, it is a beautiful set out, amazing people who are so caring and competent”. She decided to become a shareholder of the clinic and now is a director of the clinic. Mya has helped to increase capacity of the clinic by engaging specialists including an endocrinologist, cardiologist, a surgeon, gastroenterologist, haematologist and an oncologist which has had positive impacts on the local community. Patients can now access specialist health services locally instead of traveling long distances for consultations.
She loves to have closer contact with patients and feels she “can do more for them instead of referring them to far away hospitals”. Mya is determined to have more interaction with her patients while building their confidence. Dr Tun enjoys her work – life balance while practicing in rural Victoria where she can spend more time with her family instead of being stuck in traffic, shuttling between hospitals.
Mya Tun advocates for doctors to work rurally and she advises them to “aim high, work hard and that everything is possible”. Mya is grateful for the support she has had from RWAV who she says has “helped from the beginning, from being a locum to securing work at Wallan. RWAV helps me to keep going”. She continues to be supported by RWAV when hiring new GPs and specialists to the clinic. She says the doctors provided by RWAV “are absolutely lovely, well trained and skillful doctors, and that patients of the clinic love them”. Mya is currently on the 2 year RLRP program. Mya says she will keep doing what she loves and continue to work in rural Victoria and support her local community.
