Our Staff

Meet the specialists caring for patients across the Hunter, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region.

Cardiology

3 specialists

Dr Mohammed Al-Omary

General & Interventional Cardiologist

Dr Al-Omary is a general and interventional cardiologist with special interest in heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, coronary artery disease, complex percutaneous coronary intervention and intravascular imaging.

He graduated from Mosul Medical College in 2004, completing his internship and internal medicine residency in Mosul teaching hospitals. After leaving Iraq in 2008, he worked in an Emergency Department in the UAE for three years, then moved to Australia in 2011 where he undertook internal medicine and cardiology training at John Hunter Hospital. He was awarded FRACP in 2019 and subsequently completed a year of interventional fellowship at John Hunter Hospital. In 2021 he joined Dr Eugene Wu at Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong to undertake a chronic total occlusion and complex coronary intervention fellowship.

A clinical researcher, Dr Al-Omary completed a PhD on heart failure outcomes with the University of Newcastle and has published 32 peer-reviewed articles. He has spoken at national and international conferences.

He has been appointed as a cardiology staff specialist at Maitland and John Hunter Hospitals. He performs procedures at John Hunter Hospital, Lake Macquarie Private Hospital and Lingard Private Hospital, and consults at Heart Solutions Centre at Maitland Private Hospital.

Dr Rajinder Harjit Singh

Cardiologist — Heart Failure & Pulmonary Hypertension

Dr Rajinder Harjit Singh is a cardiologist specialising in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, with experience in all aspects of clinical cardiology.

He studied medicine at the University of Queensland and completed his internship and basic physician training in Newcastle. He undertook specialist cardiology training at Launceston General Hospital, and completed his fellowship in heart failure and pulmonary hypertension at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, where he was involved in a number of international research projects.

He is currently a staff specialist cardiologist at the John Hunter and Maitland Hospitals, with admission rights at Newcastle Private Hospital, Maitland Private Hospital, Lake Macquarie Private Hospital and Lingard Private Hospital.

He manages a wide variety of adult cardiovascular conditions and performs and reports transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiograms, stress echocardiograms and exercise stress ECGs, as well as right heart catheterisations and cardiac biopsies.

Dr Lloyd Butel-Simoes

BMed, FRACP, FICOS, PhD Candidate

Cardiologist — Cardio-Oncology, Heart Failure & Imaging

Dr Lloyd Butel-Simoes is a Cardiologist practising in Newcastle and the Hunter, with subspecialty expertise in cardio-oncology, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and cardiac imaging. He earned his medical degree at the University of Newcastle and completed physician and specialist cardiology training within Hunter New England Health, followed by subspecialty fellowship training locally and at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London.

He is a Conjoint Associate Lecturer and Clinical Teaching Fellow at the University of Newcastle, a Fellow of the International Cardio-Oncology Society and of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, and an active researcher within the ICOS-accredited Newcastle Cardio-Oncology Centre of Excellence under the HMRI Cancer Detection & Therapy Research Program. His University of Newcastle PhD examines cardio-oncology risk stratification and cardiotoxicity mitigation strategies. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in journals including the European Heart Journal, Hypertension, Circulation and Climacteric.

His clinical interests include performing and reporting resting and stress transthoracic echocardiography, transoesophageal echocardiography, and right and left heart catheterisation for the workup of pulmonary hypertension.

Nephrology & General Medicine

1 specialist

Dr Humam Hazim

Nephrologist General Medicine Specialist

Dr Humam Hazim is an Australian-trained Nephrologist.

He undertook basic physician training with the Hunter New England Network and completed his advanced training in nephrology and kidney transplant medicine at Westmead and John Hunter Hospitals.

Dr Hazim has published research in leading international peer-reviewed journals and presented at various national conferences. He is a Conjoint Associate Lecturer at the University of Newcastle and remains dedicated to continuous professional development.

He has special interest in managing chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury, glomerulonephritis, diabetic kidney disease, polycystic kidney disease, renal transplant medicine, electrolyte imbalance, hypertension and kidney stone prevention.

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