ORANGE'S new staff specialist in emergency medicine, Dr Shamus Shepherd, has no doubt he and his young family have made the right move by coming to Orange to live while the clinician works in the hospital's emergency department.
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"You hear it so often but Orange really does have the perfect work-life balance for us now," he said.
Dr Shepherd comes to Orange with a wealth of experience gained both overseas and in Australia.
Most recently he worked at one of the state's busiest hospitals, Liverpool Hospital, where he treated trauma cases from 2008 until the move to Orange in February this year.
"At a busy hospital such as Liverpool I saw just about every type of trauma possible," Dr Shepherd said.
"We dealt with a lot of motor vehicle accidents, but we were also right in the middle of an industrial area, so we saw all types of industrial accidents as well."
As Orange hospital has the status of a major trauma hospital in the region, for Dr Shepherd and his family, the Orange Health Service seemed the perfect fit.
"I had heard this was a great hospital and also there was a lot of support from clinicians, which has absolutely proved to be the case," he said.
Dr Shepherd said he wasn't in Orange long when he had an experience that reinforced he and his family's decision to move from the city.
He found himself treating a seriously ill man who was planning a dinner party with his wife on the day he came in for treatment.
"Obviously it didn't go ahead, but what was just so lovely was his wife brought me the dessert cake out to the hospital they were planning to serve and gave it to me," he said.
Dr Shepherd said one thing he didn't miss was the hours he spent in traffic commuting to and from Liverpool Hospital.
"When I arrived home my little one (he and his wife have since had a second child) was always asleep," he said.
"I felt I was missing out on so much."
A keen rugby player in the past, Dr Shepherd said he and his wife Georgie, daughter Lottie and newborn Rupert had already begun to become immersed in Orange's cultural and social life.
"It just seems there are so many more opportunities to make connections, both with work and outside work," he said.
With the family home now set up on the outskirts of Orange, Dr Shepherd said he and his family were living the dream.
"I can be at work in just a few minutes, it's great," he said.