"Doctor Baraz was my doctor when I was in high school and I said to him when I was in year 11 and 12, I really want to be a doctor," she said.

"And he said 'well come with me on my morning ward rounds and you can write it on your application', so I used to meet him at the hospital before school and follow him around and I did put it on my applications."

Fast-forward a few years and Dr Melissa Smith has worked in big hospitals like John Hunter, Gosford and Wyong in the emergency departments and in pediatrics.

Now she has returned home to Lithgow to put down some roots and is the new GP at Lithgow Valley Medical Practice, working alongside Dr Baraz.

"I grew up in Lithgow, went to school at St Patrick's and La Salle and always knew I wanted to be a doctor. Once I finished school I moved away to go to university," Dr Smith said.

She graduated from a six year degree at UNSW Sydney and ventured to work on the Central Coast and Blue Mountains before moving back to Lithgow at the end of 2020.

"My husband and I decided to move back just to be closer to family and now we have a son so we thought it'd be a good idea," she said.

Dr Smith had been on maternity leave up until recently and said she was looking forward to pursuing general practice in Lithgow.

"It will be a less hectic lifestyle because there's a lot of night shift with emergency and a lot of shift work. So it's nice to be able to work during the week and no after hours work," she said.

She said she always knew she would be either a paediatrician or a general practitioner.

"I started the paediatric training, and it just ultimately wasn't for me so I got used to treating adults again and started working in emergency.

"It was really good because you're exposed to a wide variety of presentations and now I'm moving into general practice," she said.

Dr Smith said she was mostly looking forward to forming life-long relationships with her patients and providing children's, women's and primary health care.

"It's nice, because unlike emergency, you get to follow up with the patients, in the emergency you'll see people for four hours and I'll never know what happened to them," she said.

"Whereas in general practice you can see people a month later or a week later, and you find out what happens and you can kind of follow them over a long period."

Dr Smith's books are open for appointments and she will be working Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

"I'm really looking forward to staying in Lithgow and I'm hoping to be able to provide health services for a long time into the future, I'm very happy to be here," she said.

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