Jonathon Rice and Ming Liang have joined resident surgeon Sanjay Singh in a major boost to the local health service.

A general surgeon, Mr Rice has brought his family from England to fulfil a desire to work in rural practice.

Mr Rice is originally from Adelaide but spent 15 years in England, where he ran a breast cancer service and melanoma unit.

Many criticised his decision to move to the Eurobodalla as professional suicide, particularly as he is unable to use his training as a vascular surgeon here.

But the mid-December move has already provided some welcome challenges.

“I have done things here I’m trained for but I’ve not had to do before. It’s quite unique.”

It has also offered a better life for his wife Wendy, three-year-old son Thomas and two-year-old son Henry, and their third child, who was due to be born this week.

“The place is beautiful too, absolutely stunning,” Mr Rice said.

“If you compare what you get here to what you get in the UK - health, environment - it’s clean, the weather’s better, you have got a better standard of living.”

The family lives in Batemans Bay, and Mr Rice said the schools and pre-schools already looked great.

General surgeon Ming Liang began work at Moruya on Thursday, and will spend alternate weeks in Moruya and Canberra.

He has 30 years’ experience and trained in Beijing before he came to Australia in 1990. He completed his PhD and spent a lot of time in research before he qualified as a surgeon in Australia.

Mr Liang said the health service had potential for growth.

“That here we can provide 75 to 80 per cent of the care required by the

community is pretty good.”

Many residents will already know Mr Singh, who has spent four years in Moruya. His main expertise is diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy. He specialises in colo-rectal issues and breast surgery, but does whatever is needed. He said the additional surgeons would make life a little easier.

“We’re going to attract more work back to the area because at times a single-surgeon situation is not an ideal situation,” he said.

“I think patients (now) get a really good deal.”