Dr Yoshi Inoue


Three Springs

“No one calls me Doctor,” Dr. Inoue says with a huge grin. “They all call me Yoshi. I like that. In Three Springs it’s important for people to be close and to feel their doctor is their friend.”

Three Springs became home for Dr Yoshi Inoue in 2003 when he arrived there by way of Sydney, Alice Springs and Wickham from Kyoto in Japan, having worked and studied in many parts of Australia to become a highly qualified general practitioner, aviation medical examiner, pharmacist and acupuncturist.

All of which are called upon in great measure now he is running the medical practice in Three Springs.

Yoshi arrived a year before the opening of the town’s new, medical centre, a brick, single-story building with plenty of consulting and examination rooms and a pleasant reception area manned by Yoshi’s assistants, Leticya Whyte and Robyn Hunt who is herself a grade two volunteer ambulance officer.

“Maybe because the Medical Centre is the only one for miles around, Rio Tinto Minerals have been unbelievably generous in their support,” Yoshi says. “The company has enabled us to vastly improve our quality of care by giving the practice a grant of $50,000 with which we have bought a combined ECG monitor and Spirometer as well as a Defibrillator.”

“But the most important piece of equipment we are buying is a MoleMax machine from America which will allow us to make computerised examination of patients’ skin.”

“In a farming community like this,” Yoshi continues, “we see many skin problems. Thank goodness Rio Tinto places so much emphasis on health and safety, which means we have a lot less skin problems with workers at the mine.”

“That’s because we operate a ‘long and long’ policy… long sleeves and long trousers,” Alan Cook, Manager of Operations at Rio Tinto’s Three Springs talc mine, states. “It is also evidenced by the annual skin checks that every worker at the mine receives. Previously we had a specialist travel up from Perth to conduct the tests but once Yoshi has the MoleMax machine installed, we’ll be using him to test all our people.”

Yoshi’s acupuncture practice is also a great draw, with some people travelling from Geraldton, 150 kilometres away, to receive treatment.

“Acupuncture is a traditional treatment whereas the MoleMax machine is advanced medical science,” Yoshi says, grinning broadly. “But they both have their place in my practice.”