After nearly 17 years facing the challenges of convincing medical specialists to live and work in Wagga, Joy Ross said most most potential recruits were won over after visiting the city in person.
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"It's fair to say that once people visit here, when they look around the city, it's very unlikely they won't come," she said.
Mrs Ross retired last month as the manager of medical specialist recruitment for the Riverina Medical Specialist Recruitment and Retention Committee, which said said was "challenging" but rewarding work.
"I think the biggest difficulty was the perception; If you just do an ad people see Wagga and unless they have been here there's a really strong perception of what a place like Wagga might be.
"Having grown up in Sydney myself and moved here as an adult, I love Wagga with a passion but if you have not been here, ads are never going to cut it."
She said finding jobs for the partners of medical specialists was also a challenge but the coronavirus pandemic might help in the long-term by promoting the lifestyle and shorter commutes in regional NSW.
Mrs Ross has lost count of the number of people she approached to move to Wagga but said she had seen more than 100 medical specialists recruited during her time working for the committee.
She said she had recruited "everything from physicians, which takes in cardiology, respiratory and infectious disease, neurology and also surgeons".
"We had had a number of surgeons who have come here for a fellowship year to complete their specialist training before going overseas to places like Canada and Milan," she said.
"But once they were exposed to Wagga they came back and set up practices here."
Last week, Wagga MP Joe McGirr gave a tribute to Mrs Ross in NSW Parliament.
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"As we know, attracting doctors to rural areas is challenging. Mrs Ross has made a substantial, long-term, contribution to improving health care in the Riverina," he said.
"According to her former colleagues, she not only travelled to find potential candidates, she also 'went on tour' to introduce them to general practitioners across the region."
Mrs Ross started in the role when Calvary and I-MED provided funding for to run a recruitment taskforce for just one year.
"It was very successful. They wanted to recruit two doctors in the first year and we recruited four and so it expanded to other specialty areas and it has been ongoing," she said.
Calvary said it was looking for a candidate to fill Mrs Ross's vacancy on the medical recruitment committee..