Dr Shah Fakhruddin is Lithgow's new GP at Ochre Medical Centre in Main Street

Dr Shah Fakhruddin is the new GP and with experience from paediatrics to skin and mental health, he's a welcome addition to the community.

"Lithgow is a very friendly community who've welcomed me with open arms and hearts," he said.

Having enjoyed seven years working as a GP with Ochre Health in Tea Gardens, Dr Fakhruddin was keen to stay with the organisation.

"When the team said there was an opening in Lithgow I was delighted to take it, as I had visited the area many times and know it quite well," he said

"It's a great location, it's close to everything and we have the support of a major hospital in Katoomba."

Dr Fakhruddin's career has included emergency medicine, mental health and paediatrics, and he practised in New Zealand, Iran and Bangladesh before moving to Australia.

"I settled in Australia and worked in a number of Sydney hospitals, eventually becoming a Mental Health Registrar," he said.

After spending a decade in mental health and drug rehabilitation practice, he made the decision to return to general practice.

"My mental health and drug rehabilitation work was fascinating, but I started to feel burnt out - seeing the same people come back repeatedly and finding it difficult to help them in the way I wanted to," he said.

"My work as a GP is far more balanced. I see a wide variety of patients with a range of different issues and I find it very rewarding when I can make them feel better and make a genuine difference to their lives and their wellbeing."

Dr Fakhruddin also speaks Bengali, Hindi, and Farsi and said he enjoys finding patients he can talk to in their own language.

"The second day of my practice here, a patient came in and I could see from his name that he was from Iraq or Iran so I greeted him in Farsi," he said.

"If you open a dialogue in a patient's own language they feel at home. They instantly feel someone can listen and understand them."

When he's not giving Lithgow patients high quality care, Dr Fakhruddin enjoys his cricket.

"I've not been an active player since I was a college student but I love to watch. I've been watching Australia play since I was young. When I lived in Auckland, I could walk to Eden Park and I got to see both India and Pakistan play New Zealand. International matches are less accessible here, but I still love to watch them on TV," he said.