LAID BACK: Dr Sher Khan loves the relaxed way of life in New Zealand.PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 071015WCSMKHAN2
Almost every patient walking through Sher Khan's door brings up the fact he's one letter short of sharing a name with Shere Khan, the infamous tiger from The Jungle Book.
He isn't sick of it yet though.
"It's a good icebreaker," he said.
Dr Khan might need an icebreaker, considering he will be seeing a lot of his new patients around the city.
"It's a small town. Most of the people that are your patients, they're the same people you see in the streets as well."
Having worked in the UK, it was a surprise for Dr Khan to be working in a place where his mechanic, dentist or local Four Square owner was his patient.
"You go to the pub and your patient is sitting there," he said.
He began work as the newest full-time GP at Jabulani Medical Centre on Monday.
Dr Khan, from Pakistan, became a doctor in 2000 and moved to the UK in 2001 for surgical training. He came to Wanganui in 2006 on a six-month contract and stayed for several years.
"I really liked it here," he said. "Have you been to the UK? When you sit in the doctors' lounge or with other doctors, all you talk about is the next exam, the next course you're going to do."
In New Zealand, the conversation ran more along the lines of "when are you going skiing?" and "when are you going on holiday?"
"Why did nobody tell me about this before?" Dr Khan said.
After three years working in surgery in Wanganui, Dr Khan worked his way around the country, doing stints in Invercargill, Whakatane, Timaru, Wellington, Palmerston North, Dargaville, Rotorua and Hokianga.
But it was Wanganui he wanted to settle in, after marrying and having a baby. "Wanganui is the best. It has basically got everything. It's a nice quiet place, the houses are affordable."
Dr Khan found the "laid-back" lifestyle in New Zealand suited him well. He was unprepared on his first day working in Wanganui, when he showed up in his best clothes and came across his colleagues in jandals, T-shirts and jeans.
Throughout the rest of the day, "off came the tie" and "off came the cufflinks".
"People are just easy-going here."
Dr Brown said Wanganui had had trouble in the past attracting full-time GPs, particularly younger ones.
"They love to go to Auckland or Wellington, where everything happens."
However, now he said Wanganui was "flush" with GPs.
Jabulani's chief GP Andrew Brown said: "He's going to be a very good asset to our practice. He brings with him a world of knowledge and expertise."
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