Dr. Anna Donovan

Possessed of a truly adventurous spirit, British national Dr. Anna met her husband in a lecture theatre at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and went on to travel the world with him. The couple finally decided to settle down in Brighton and have their daughter—but after Evie’s birth, chose to move to Vietnam.

Most of Dr. Anna’s training was undertaken in Great Britain—she graduated from the University of Manchester in 2009 and trained as a junior doctor, followed by her studies in Liverpool. It was at this point that she had her most eye-opening experiences as a volunteer at a primary health care medical center in Namibia, where she served the San bushmen—a persecuted ethnicity in Southern Africa. Over four hours’ drive away from any meaningful modern medical practice, Dr. Anna learned quickly to rely on clinical judgement in the absence of tests, while caring for a group of people afflicted with high rates of tuberculosis as well as debilitating social conditions such as poverty, malnourishment, alcoholism and domestic abuse.

When Dr. Anna returned to the U.K., she undertook a few ad hoc posts between training programs in areas such as emergency medicine and A&E. She eventually became an Advanced Life Support instructor, teaching other health care professionals how to train others in the field. She then completed her GP training and obtained membership to the Royal College of General Practitioners. It was her real-life parenting experiences that she gained after becoming a mother, however, that informed her practice to the extent that she now feels sufficiently qualified to assist our pediatrician Dr. Agnes in running the SIMBA group for mothers of babies here.

Dr. Anna loves the relatively relaxed pace in Vietnam compared with working for the NHS back home, but keeps fit by taking regular aquabiking courses, something that stands in for her former hobby as a rescue scuba diver. Whilst not able to dive with Evie in tow, the family still loves to travel and takes every opportunity to explore new places on dry land. The spirit of adventure, it would seem, can never be held down for long.

Practice License: 035790/BYT-CCHN

Working Location: Clinic no.3