THREE Cooma general practitoners have sent up a strong message to doctors and medical students: 'come work in the country, and help save rural and regional medicine'.

Doctors Domonic Manassa, Colin Zhu and Jae Lee fear Snowy Mountains towns could end up like other regional towns where doctor shortages are so severe that patients have to travel for hours to see GPs for regular appointments.

They predict regional medicine will be in 'dire straits' in a decade if something is not done urgently to encourage qualified general practitioners to leave the city and new doctors to choose general practice as a specialty.

"At the moment we are doing ok here compared to some towns, but it might not always be that way," Dr Manassa, who recently opened the brand new Monaro Medical Practice, where he hopes to make partners of Dr Zhu and new arrival this week Dr Lee, said.

"We need to do all we can to ensure the future of our medical practices and our service to our communities."

The trio, self dubbed the "three muskateers", say they are committed to doing what they can do to promote and support rural and regional practice and recommend it to all general practitioners and medical students.

"I began our commitment to rural and regional practice with setting up Monaro Medical Practice and taking on two doctors, first Colin and just this week, Jae," Dr Manassa said.

"We are now looking at setting up what would be the region's first sleep clinic, because there is a big need for one here, with sleep apnea a contributor to other health issues and even road accidents, and will be taking on a female doctor soon to cover women's health more adequatelly. We are all interested in preventative health and aim to grow and serve the community for the long term."

All three originally came from the city, but say they love working in Cooma because of the patients.

"You get more variety and more ongoing skilling here than the city and you also get to treat whole families, wholistically," Dr Lee said.

"As we all are on the roster to work in the Cooma hospital emergency department, we find we often get some continuity of care for our local people as well."

The newest of the trip, Dr Lee is currently commuting to work from Canberra but is looking to relocate permanently to Cooma with his wife and son, 14.

His particular interests are in surgery, bones and skin, after recently completing all the training required to become a specialist GP. He is just aaiting his Fellowship with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

His journey to becoming a GP has taken 12-years of study and work. For Dr Manassa it was 13 and Dr Zhu 11.

After graduating from university in Sydney, Dr Lee completed placements in Dubbo and Canberra. He had met Dr Manassa, his "mentor", and as a result of encouragement to try Cooma, became the first resident medical officer (RMO) at Cooma hospital in 2022 on a 12 week pilot program.

After a stint in Griffith, he returned to rulfil his GP registrar requirements in a local general practice, then accepted a role with the new surgery.

"I fell in love with the area, contrary to popular belief, you don't suffer financially by working in the country, especially with new government inventives, and I love the people."

Dr Lee is a keen snowboarder but says patients' snow injuries and illnesses will probably keep him too busy to enjoy the mountains in winter.

"We have a big variety of patients. Today I have stitched a leg from a chainsaw incident, seen a nine year old with concussion, a person with a cough."

Dr Zhu restarted in Cooma four months ago, coming from Sydney. He is particularly interested in child health and geriatrics and has started looking after patients at Allambie and Hudson House.

"I was an intern with Dom. We both came to Cooma for six months but we are now here for the long term. I find that if you stay in the city you de-skill. Here we have so much variety. You might get four skin cancer removals a year in Sydney, but here I've had four in a week.

"As well, in the city in a 5km radius you might have four specialists and the care is fragmented. I love looking after families, because you can better understand the dynamics."