With the UV Index on the rise, a new Seacliff Healthcare GP who studied medicine at Imperial College London is calling on residents to protect themselves from the sun and get their skin checked.
In England, Dr Romesh Sarvanandan could count on his hands the number of times he’d seen skin cancer. “It’s not that common,” he said.
Then, in 2019, he moved to the Illawarra and started work at a Warrawong practice. “Every second or third patient I saw had a skin cancer … Once I picked up a melanoma because I lifted someone’s arm to do a blood pressure, and I was like, Oh, what’s this big thing.”
Romesh now lives in Bulli – with his wife and 17-month-old son – and has since developed a special interest in dermatology, completing further training at the Skin Cancer College of Australia.
Seacliff Healthcare practice principal Dr Jennifer Bowler said their new GP is an asset to the clinic as he has had surgical training.
Before qualifying as a GP in the UK in 2017, Romesh trained as a vascular surgeon, which means he can perform skin cancer surgery and other minor procedures.
“I probably tend to do more advanced things than a standard GP would be comfortable doing,” he said.
With a team of four GPs, all of whom do skin checks, Jennifer is leading an expansion of skincare services at the Thirroul clinic.
“We now offer Molemapping by dermatologists,” she said. “A nurse comes once a week to photograph people’s moles and a remote dermatologist diagnoses whether there is skin cancer or not. This is very important for people with a very large number of moles to do, so subtle changes and new ones can be documented.”
Romesh said it is a mistake to assume that melanoma – which the Cancer Council describes as ‘Australia’s national cancer’ – is an older person’s problem.
“Melanoma kills young people,” he said. “If you look at the stats, most 20- to 30-year-olds are the ones that tend to get the melanoma, and they die from it.”
Annual skin checks should begin any time from age 16, he said. “I’ll probably say the earlier the better.”
People with sun damage or skin changes may need a check every six months, and any moles after age 20 should be viewed as “abnormal until proven otherwise”.
“Always get it checked.”
In addition to skin cancer, Romesh is also interested in working with patients with musculoskeletal injuries. “I do a lot of workers’ compensation, so I do a lot of injuries. I’ve done a bit of orthopaedics in my training as well.”
He also prescribes medicinal cannabis.
Born in Sri Lanka, Romesh lived in England from age 10. He had travelled along Australia’s east coast on holidays but had never been to the Illawarra before emigrating in 2019. “I loved it, so have been here since,” he said.
A keen runner and swimmer, Romesh enjoys the coast’s outdoor life. A teenage shoulder injury put paid to a potential cricket career – he played under-13s Essex County Club cricket – but he still enjoys the occasional game.
However, for any outdoor activity this summer – including a stroll to the shops – Romesh recommends taking precautions. These include using – and remembering to reapply – Factor 50 sunscreen and wearing a round hat that covers your ears.
“The ozone is very thin around here, you burn very, very easily,” he said.
“People don’t put sun cream on the ears. That’s a very common place to get [skin cancer]. Ears get direct sun … and because there is not much tissue around it, if you have to cut far, then you’re looking at really invasive surgery.
“So prevention is number one. And then obviously number two is getting your skin checked very regularly.
“What I’m noticing nowadays is people – like 30, 40-year-olds – they’re busy with work, they don’t want to take time off. They don’t want to go get health checks done because they think it’s a waste of time.”
Think of the body like a car, he said. “You’re not going to wait for the car to break down before you go and get a service done. So why not book yourself an appointment and go and get a health check done with a GP? It’s six to 10 minutes a year and you’ll leave them checked for the next year.”
Seacliff Healthcare is at Shop 12, 345 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Thirroul (entrance off Railway Parade). Call (02) 4202 6900 or visit the website for more information.
