YOU’D be hard pressed to find a local who hasn’t seen, heard of, or been treated by Dr Travis Taggert.
Known affectionately in the community as ‘Dr Trav’, at just 33 years old he’s synonymous with healthcare in the region.
Whether he’s behind the desk at Ontario Family Practice, in the cells through his work with Victoria Police, amongst the scrub and dirt as part of the Victorian Medical Assistance Team (VMAT), admitting patients at Mildura Private Hospital, or on the boundary as founder of the Ryan Legal Sunraysia Football Netball League Injury Clinic (RLSFNLIC), it seems like Dr Taggert is everywhere all at once.
Now he reflects on his upbringing in Mildura, how he got to where he is today and why he chose to remain in his hometown.
Dr Taggert said he knew very early on that working in the medical industry was exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
In fact, it’s the only career path he ever really considered.
After completing school-based work experience at the Mildura Base Public Hospital in Year 9, Dr Taggert said he was “hooked.”
“Funny enough, there’s nurses working at the hospital still to this day that were there when I was just a teenager doing my work experience,” he said.
“It was a long time ago, but I knew then and there that I wanted to be in medicine, the only real question was how was I going to get myself there?”
The youngest of three, Dr Taggert was raised in Mildura by his hardworking mum, who worked as a cleaner and a nanny throughout his childhood to support the family.
“I didn’t come from money at all,” Dr Taggert said.
“My mum was a single mum and she worked so incredibly hard to support us.
“I knew that if I really wanted to get into medical school, I’d have to work hard and save as much money as I could to get through.”
Which is exactly what he did through his teen years, working part-time at the local cinema while studying like crazy to achieve the incredibly high scores necessary to be accepted into medicine.
“I was working insane hours, as many shifts as I could possibly get, I would take them without hesitation,” he said.
“I really did spread myself awfully thin between work and study, but it was what I had to do at the time.”
Reflecting on the time, Dr Taggert said he made many sacrifices and didn’t get to experience a lot of the things other teens did.
“I’m not going to lie, when you’re a teenager and all your mates are going out and going to parties while you’re either working or studying, it’s pretty hard,” he said.
“You can definitely feel a bit disconnected, and the temptation to slack off was always there, but I did the absolute best I could not to give in to it.
“I knew it was no joke, it was my future and I had to take it seriously if I wanted to get accepted into medicine.
“I didn’t have the safety net of parents with money, I had myself and whatever I earned and saved was basically going to be what got me through the next five years of studying and living in the city.”
And while the experience of living in the big smoke was “unforgettable”, Dr Taggert said he always knew he’d make the trek back to Mildura – and with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery under his belt, he returned home to serve the community he was raised in.
“It was never a question in my mind,” he said.
“As soon as I was finished with my studies, I was on my way back to Mildura.
“Sure, I had opportunities and offers to work elsewhere, and to be honest I still do get offers to this day, but I genuinely cannot imagine living and working anywhere else.”
But working as a full-time general practitioner in Mildura just isn’t enough for Dr Trav.
He also does on-call work with prisoners in custody for Victoria Police, acts as a visiting medical officer at Mildura Private Hospital, works as a mentor and lecturer at Monash University, co-ordinates and runs the VMAT and the RLSFNLIC – all at the same time.
“It seems like a lot, but it’s really not that bad,” Dr Taggert said.
“I don’t like to be bored, I always like to be busy and doing something, and I am well aware of the healthcare professional shortage this region is facing, so if I am at all capable of filling any gaps in that space for the community, of course I’m going to put my hand up to do it.
“The Sunraysia region is growing and the population is growing but the number of GP’s coming to town isn’t.
“In fact it’s actually shrinking because many GPs who have worked in the community for their whole career are now trying to retire or wind back their hours, which they absolutely deserve to be able to do.
“Combine that with a lack of new GP’s coming to town and a hospital that is not big enough to service the needs of this community and we’re left with the crisis we’re currently facing.
“It’s really frustrating and concerning.
“We really need to be incentivising, encouraging, supporting and empowering doctors in their junior years to enter into general practice and rural generalisum, because I can honestly say firsthand, there is no career more rewarding.”
Dr Taggert said the satisfaction that comes from servicing the healthcare needs of a rural community is, in his opinion, “unparalleled.”
“I often have generations of family members come through the doors, and that is something that always sticks with me,” he said.
“I’ll treat and help an elderly patient, then her daughter, then her daughter who is pregnant, then I’ll meet the new baby and become the doctor of that child, and I get to see them grow, start school and so on – there’s just something really special about going on that journey with people. It’s a privilege, really.
“To me, that experience is worth more than any high paying job in the city.”
