General practice ‘game changers’ receive Australia Day Honours

Eight GPs from across the country have received Australia Day Honours in recognition of their vast contributions to the community.
 
Aside from their work as a GP, recipients were also acknowledged for the time and effort they had dedicated to specific causes, including emergency rescue organisations, addiction recovery programs, and their local communities.
 
RACGP President Dr Karen Price told newsGP the Honours reflect the tireless work recipients have engaged in over many years, and show the level of esteem GPs are held in by the community.
 
‘While we already know how important GPs are on not only a local level, but internationally as well, these awards reinforce the difference we can and do make to the world around us,’ she said.
 
‘GPs can be game changers for so many people and places, and it’s wonderful to see their efforts acknowledged on a national level.
 
‘Given everything that’s happening both in Australia and overseas at the moment, it’s so important that we continue to celebrate the success and progress we have made.
 
‘I’d like to congratulate each and every individual recipient, and thank them for all the work that has led up to this moment.’
 
Upon releasing the full list of Australia Day Honour recipients, Australian Governor-General David Hurley described the group as a ‘diverse and unique’, but possessing common characteristics of selflessness, commitment and dedication.
 
‘On behalf of all Australians, I congratulate everyone recognised in the Australia Day Honours list,’ he said.
 
‘Recipients have not put their hand up to be recognised. Most would consider the achievements that they are being recognised for to be “ordinary” or just what they do.
 
‘Therein is the great strength of our system – recipients in the Order of Australia have been nominated by their peers, considered by an independent process and, today, recognised by the nation.
 
‘The sum of these contributions speaks to our nation’s greatest strength – its people.’
 
GPs included on the 2021 Australia Day Honours list: 

• Dr Kenneth Fitch, AM, Western Australia ­– for distinguished service to sports medicine at the national and international level through a range of roles, and to medical education.
• Dr James Bowie, OAM, Western Australia – for service to medicine as a GP.
• Dr Susan English-Donkers, OAM, Victoria – for service to the youth of Timor-Leste, to women, and to medicine.
• Dr Amarjit More, OAM, New South Wales (posthumously awarded) – for service to medicine, and to the local and Sikh communities of Woolgoolga.
• Dr Frederick Morgan, OAM, Queensland – for service to medicine as a GP.
• Dr David Nelson, OAM, Western Australia – for service to medicine, and to the community.
• Dr David Outridge, OAM, New South Wales  – for service to medicine, particularly to addiction recovery programs.
• Dr Susan Rowley, OAM, New South Wales  – for service to medicine, and to emergency rescue organisations.

Australia Day Honours general practice