After six years of being forced to travel to neighbouring suburbs for the services of a doctor, the 4800 residents of the Illawarra’s port suburb have a GP of their own.

Swedish GP Dr Aase Pacey will open a practice on Wentworth Street later this month, after more than two years spent gaining her Australian accreditation and meeting government criteria. 

Dr Pacey, 42, has undergone additional training in women's and children's health and intends to make this the main focus of her practice.

For largely economic reasons, she will offer bulk billing only to patients aged under 18 or over 65.

"I provide a service completely different to what you get at bulk billing medical centres - long-term solutions," she said.

"I'm engaged, and I want to provide continuity and because I provide that I will have to [charge] a fee because otherwise I will not be sustainable. 

"People who wan the quick "in and out" [consultation] can still go to the medical centre in Warrawong, but if they're  looking for something else - and I think a lot of people are - then I care about them as individuals. I really do - that's what I get out of it." 

There has not been a GP in Port Kembla since Dr Brian Stein retired in 2009.

Dr Pacey and her Australian miner husband Richard, of Queensland, moved from Sweden to Australia in 2010 and were driving from Sydney to Melbourne when the Illawarra escarpment caught their eye. 

With their two young children they moved to the region in July, 2012. Ten days later, Dr Pacey saw a story in the Mercury in which Port Kembla community leaders spoke of the "chronic need for a doctor" in their suburb.

"I have a resident who is 73 and has emphysema,"Domma Porcella, of the Fitzwilliam Street boarding house, said then. 

"I have another old chap who has had major heart surgery, has two artificial hips, one artificial knee. Some of these people can't walk a few paces, let alone to Warrawong."

 Dr Pacey's practice will open at 109 Wentworth Street on July 20.