A St Albans surgeon will run for the seat of Niddrie in this month’s state election.
Paddy Dewan, a paediatric surgeon and urologist, is a Voice for the West candidate and has been a healthcare reform advocate since 1996.
“My role will be to ensure that when projects [are] to be developed, appropriate scrutiny is given for what’s best for the community – not to just have a football kicked from one team to another, trying to score points,” he said.
The fourth-generation Irish-Australian chairs the community group The Wee Kids, which supports the families of children suffering from urological conditions.
Dr Dewan said it was not just funding that was needed in the Victorian health care system but more effort in “correct management”.
“Recent decisions have cost money, time and injury to the morale of nurses and paramedics.”
Delahey resident Lidia Najbar, the mother of one of Dr Dewan’s former patients, said he was a very accessible “man of action”, who had stood up for healthcare issues in Parliament.
Two years ago he had saved her son’s kidney.
Mrs Najbar said that, as a mother, she felt reassured dealing with Dr Dewan. “As soon as he discovered it [Dr Dewan] dropped everything so he could operate as soon as possible,” she said.
Dr Dewan, who has conducted health projects in developing countries through volunteer work for the Kind Cuts for Kids not-for-profit organisation, said safety and more education for the care of children was vital.
Dr Dewan will contest the seat against sitting Labor member Ben Carroll, Liberals candidate Rebecca Gauci Maurici and the Greens’ Sarah Roberts.
