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An Altona North doctor on the front line of the fight against COVID-19 has been named Hobsons Bay Citizen of the Year.
Mukesh Haikerwal, whose medical practice last year became the first GP respiratory clinic testing for coronavirus in Melbourne’s west, said the pandemic had brought the community together.
“What it has shown me is how important community actually is,” Dr Haikerwal said.
“Being embedded at the very beginning of this contagion, we were getting everybody prepared with making the environment safe.
“As we went through the year, we kept trying to keep people appraised of whether they had the illness or not with the testing and then we went through the phase of industrialising it.
“Then we had the terrible time of the positive cases, and in our backyard our own spikes.
“Marshalling the community is what saved us – with the city council, with the local doctors, all the health services … and the community bought in, they came and got tested, they kept away, they did all the right things.
“And because it was a community effort, we made a big change.
“People keep saying it’s a team effort but absolutely it’s a team effort. An individual doesn’t do this … the community comes together to make sure we keep the community safe.”
The former World Medical Association chairman and Australian Medical Association president said the next part of the journey would be getting people vaccinated.
“We need to not wait to be told what to do, we need to organise ourselves to do whatever needs to be done so that we’re ready to act as soon as the button is pressed,” Dr Haikerwal said.
On being named the municipality’s top citizen, the Williamstown resident expressed gratitude for the community.
“For me, this was being part of the community where we’ve chosen to live, raise the kids. We’ve been through quite a lot,” Dr Haikerwal said.
“I can only thank people for their support and their friendship and their nurturing.
