We built the practice we always wanted to work in.

She graduated as a veterinarian in Egypt in 2008, moved to Australia, and requalified here in 2016 after working through the National Veterinary Exam. Since then she has built a broad career across mixed practice, small animal general practice and emergency medicine, so she is as comfortable with a routine consult as she is with a complex emergency.

Her real passion is the operating theatre, with a special interest in soft tissue surgery, where precision and problem solving matter as much as kindness does. She founded Eastern Animal Hospital to build the purpose-built, low-stress facility she had long had in mind, designed around the animals walking through the door as much as the people. Long relationships with families and their pets, she believes, produce better care.

Outside the hospital you will usually find her with family and friends, at the gym, walking Rosco her 7.5 year old GSP, or driving her son Matt to and from soccer.

Irene has spent her career on preventative medicine, and on the view that the room an animal walks into changes how the visit goes. She has previously built a purpose-built, stress-free veterinary facility from the ground up, complete with dedicated cat and dog zones.

She brings more than a decade of surgical experience across bone and soft tissue procedures for dogs, cats, and small animals including rabbits, guinea pigs and ferrets. A long-standing wish to practise compassionate, proactive care in the right environment is what led her to co-found Eastern Animal Hospital with Martina. Her commitment is straightforward: care for pets at the highest standard at every stage of life, and look after their owners just as well.

Away from work, Irene spends most of her time with her husband Albert and their two daughters, and she will never say no to a good meal out.