News

Fun Fact

The days of not being able to access your own health information are rapidly disappearing. Now there is a user-friendly government app called 1800Medicare.

This app allows you to access results, prescriptions, scans and test results, your immunisation record, specialists’ letters and a summary of your medical encounters. You can also locate local medical and allied health services.

Health Promotion

Winter is a time of less sun exposure for all, more staying indoors by the heater and comforting ourselves with food. This sometimes leads to low vitamin D levels, especially in Melbourne where the sunny days are few and far between. It is important for your immunity and bone health to keep up your vitamin D supplements during the whole winter period. Most people will not get enough sun exposure to have adequate stores of vitamin D.

We should also keep up our vitamin C rich foods to help combat winter infections. Humans are not able to synthesise our own vitamin C and so we rely completely on vitamin C from foods. Fortunately we have oranges in season in winter in Australia which are naturally high in vitamin C. Choosing fresh fruit and vegetables also helps avoid the extra winter kilograms.

Did you Know?

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr Alex Yow to the team at Merri-bek Family Doctors. Dr Alex has been working in Wangaratta until recently, but is transitioning to live and work in Melbourne. He and Dr Petrina first met when Alex was a medical student in Petrina’s Compassion Cultivation class at the University of Melbourne. Dr Alex has a broad experience across community general practice, emergency medicine, critical care, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, rehabilitation, and psychiatry.

Dr Alex is committed to patient-centred care with particular interests in mental health, neurodiverse presentations, and sexual health. Dr Alex is known for clear, compassionate communication and for supporting shared decision-making and self-management. He adopts a trauma-informed approach, with a strong focus on respectful care, continuity, and helping patients feel understood and empowered.

Dr Alex has appointments available for new and existing patients.

Heart Food

Enjoy with us this beautiful poem by Pulitzer Prize winning American poet Mary Oliver.

When the roses speak, I pay attention

“As long as we are able to
be extravagant we will be
hugely and damply
extravagant. Then we will drop
foil by foil to the ground. This
is our unalterable task, and we do it
joyfully.”

And they went on. “Listen,
the heart shackles are not, as you think,
death, illness, pain,
unrequited hope, not loneliness, but
lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety,
selfishness.”

Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.