Dr Leanne Cheung

Staff Specialist / Director of training for Ophthalmology

Prince of Wales Hospital Eye Clinic

“I grew up in a small town of four and half thousand people and my mum was a nurse. There wasn’t a doctor in town, so if something happened, everyone would come and grab my mum. She was always getting called to help and I could see how much value she was to the community. I thought helping people was a really important role to provide to my community and to my family.

That is why I love working at POWH eye clinic. I have been part of this community since I began medical school. Part of my job, as Director of Training, is to supervise registrar training, coordinate things and be the contact person between the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists and the Prince of Wales Hospital training network for Ophthalmology.

Originally Fred Hollows was the Professor for Ophthalmology at Prince of Wales and he used to do a lot of outreach work to Bourke. It’s a point of pride for our Department that we continue this and all the registrars spend time in the Outback. It’s fascinating. As a team, you fly out with the Flying Doctors to Bourke, Brewarrina, Lightning Ridge… The plane ride (small plane) takes some getting used to, but once you get there the patients are lovely, so appreciative and they often have serious problems. As a registrar and junior consultant I used to love it, and continued on for several years, until family commitments got in the way."