By Abbey Cannan
Australia’s first indigenous ophthalmic surgeon Dr Kristopher Rallah-Baker has recently opened his own private practice in Noosa.
He worked at Noosa Hospital for six months and has opened his own practice as a commitment to providing an ophthalmology service to residents of the Noosa region.
Dr Rallah-Baker said he had received a fantastic response from the community since opening.
“I’ve been working at Noosa Hospital since July or August last year and I really wanted to make a permanent investment and permeant footprint in Noosa and the local community,“ he said.
“The patients have been wonderful and I’ve been made very welcome from those patients continuing on at the practice and of course my own patients are happy with the extra room and equipment that I have.“
During Seniors Week, Dr Rallah-Baker said it was particularly important for seniors to make sure that they have good vision.
“Some of the things that can cause reduced vision commonly in our older population are macular degeneration and cataract and I treat both of those things.“
He’d been inspired from the time he was a young boy to join the medical profession, by not only his mother who was a health worker but more widely by the work of Fred Hollows and the dedication that he had to medicine and ophthalmology.
“So I decided very early on at school that medicine was the career for me and the fact that it gave me the ability to help people and more specifically these days, help people with their vision, which I think is a real privilege for me to be able to do for people,“ he said.At 18, while in his first year at Medical School, Kris was one of the founding members of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA), an Indigenous medical association for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students and graduates.
Over twenty years later and Dr Rallah-Baker is now a director of AIDA and will be an inspiration and source of support for others.
As a proud Yuggera and Biri-Gubba-Juru/Yuggera man, Dr Rallah-Baker said it was an honour to be able to hold the title of Australia’s first indigenous ophthalmic surgeon.
“The only way to describe being first in the field is it’s a real honour,“ he said.
“I stand on the shoulders of great people before me and it was through the support of my family and amazing people around me and senior consultants that I was able to achieve what I have.
“I’ve been given the opportunities I have in life through the effort of other amazing people around me so it’s a real honour and very humbling.“
Dr Rallah-Baker has seen a number of indigenous patients in the Noosa area, but has also done outreach work more widely across Australia.
During his training at the University of Queensland, Dr Rallah-Baker had the opportunity to work with The Fred Hollows Foundation in Darwin and go into remote communities to provide eye healthcare to Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory.
He also undertook a fellowship with The Fred Hollows Foundation, spending three months working in Fiji and in Alice Springs with Dr Tim Henderson, the only ophthalmologist for more than 50,000 people in the Central Australia and Barkly region.
“When Covid settles down I look forward to doing more outreach work,“ Dr Rallah-Baker said.
“I think people are still getting to know that I’m in the area and who I am and I hope that patient group grows in time.
“It’s a comprehensive general ophthalmic practice and I specialise in cataract surgery. I’d be more than happy to see people coming through and they just need to get a referral from their local optomigist or GP.
“It’ll be a real pleasure to serve the Noosa community.“
