GPs past and present honoured on Australia Day

There were a range of former and current GPs across the country recognised in the Australia Day 2022 Honours list announced yesterday (26 January).
 
They include one newly appointed officer of the Order of Australia (AO), three who become members of the Order of Australia (AM), and 12 who have received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
 
Here are the details in full:
 
Officer (AO) in the general division of the Order of Australia
 
Professor Sandra Jean Eades, Richmond, Victoria
Reason for honour: For distinguished service to medical research, to Indigenous health, and to professional organisations.
 
Bio: Professor Eades, a Noongar woman from Mount Barker in Western Australia, originally worked as a GP. In 2003, she become in 2003 the first Aboriginal medical doctor to gain a PhD. In 2020, Professor Eades became Dean of Curtin Medical School.
 
Member (AM) in the general division of the Order of Australia
 
Dr Cuong Trong Bui, Carindale, Queensland
Reason for honour: For significant service to multiculturalism, and to the Vietnamese community of Queensland.
 
Bio: A previous OAM winner, Dr Bui was a founder of the Queensland Multicultural Council and has also been widely recognised for his work with refugees.
 
Professor Gregory Brian Crawford, Walkerville, South Australia
Reason for honour: For significant service to palliative care, and to tertiary education.
 
Bio: An RACGP Fellow since 1987, Professor Crawford is a practising palliative medicine physician. He was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine from Flinders University in 2008, with his research focusing on psychological issues for people in palliative care, as well as their carers and clinicians.
 
Dr Margaret Patricia Kay, Queensland[MW1] 
Reason for honour: For significant service to medicine, to medical education, and to migrant health.
 
Bio: An RACGP Fellow since 1991, Dr Kay has been a GP at the Salisbury Medical Centre in Brisbane since 2005. She has been heavily involved in refugee health for a number of years, and also lectures at the University of Queensland’s Faculty of Medicine.
 
Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the general division
 
Dr Denis Hugh Gordon, Belmont, NSW
Reason for honour: For service to the community of Belmont.
 
Bio: A GP at his Belmont clinic for 53 years according to the Newcastle Herald, Dr Gordon only fully stepped away from his work at the age of 80 almost four years ago. The newspaper also reports that Dr Gordon took over the practice from his father, and between them they looked after the community’s health for eight decades.
 
Associate Professor Matthew Gray, Cobbitty, NSW
Reason for honour: For service to community health.
 
Bio: A former deputy chair of the NSW and ACT Faculty board, Associate Professor Gray is the current chairman of the South Western Sydney Primary Health Network. He has been a GP at the Schwarz Family Practice in Elderslie for more than 20 years.
 
Dr Kerry Lyn Hancock, Somerton Park, South Australia
Reason for honour: For service to medicine through a range of roles.
 
Bio: The Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Respiratory Medicine, Dr Hancock has been heavily involved in developing guidelines for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Her practice, Chandlers Hill Surgery, has twice been named the RACGP General Practice of the Year.
 
Dr Simon Hooton, Narangba, Queensland
Reason for honour: For service to swimming, and to the community.
 
Bio: A member of the RACGP from 1983–2016, and a previous examiner and assessor, Dr Hooton is immersed in the swimming community and is a former director of Swimming Queensland. He was inducted into Swimming Queensland’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
 
Dr Anthony Michaelson, Eltham, Victoria
Reason for honour: For service to the community through alcohol and drug use prevention programs.
 
Bio: A partner at the Myhealth North Eltham Medical Centre for more than 40 years, Dr Michaelson founded the clinic’s methadone program in 1985 and continues to coordinate it. He was also a founding board member of the RACGP’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee and is a member of RACGP Specific Interests Addiction Medicine.
 
Associate Professor Bradley Charles Murphy, Windermere, Queensland
Reason for honour: For service to community health.
 
Bio: A Fellow of the RACGP, Associate Professor Murphy is the managing director of the Ashfield Country practice. Heavily involved in Aboriginal and Torres Street Islander health, he was a National Steering Committee representative on the Close the Gap campaign from 2009–2017 and received the RACGP’s Rose Hunt Award in 2020.
 
Dr Harald Alexander Pope, Penrith, NSW
Reason for honour: For service to medicine through a range of roles.
 
Bio: A well-known GP currently practising in Penrith, Dr Pope has sat on the RACGP NSW board. He was the War Veterans’ Medico-Legal Advocate from 1996–2012.
 
Dr Walter Geoffrey Roper, NSW
Reason for honour: For service to the community through a range of roles.
 
Bio: Now retired, Dr Roper worked as GP for more than four decades from 1958–2003. He has been heavily involved in both Drummoyne and Five Dock Rotary Clubs.
 
Dr Arnold Shmerling, Caulfield, Victoria
Reason for honour: For service to the Jewish community.
 
Bio: An RACGP Fellow since 1987, Dr Shmerling has worked as a GP at the Wheelers Hill Clinic in south-east Melbourne since 1989 and previously lectured at Monash University’s Department of General Practice. He was a co-founder of Stand Up: Jewish Commitment to a Better World, where he remains a board member.
 
Dr Deborah Simmons, Shute Harbour, Queensland
Reason for honour: For service to medicine through a range of roles.
 
Bio: A former consultant anaesthetist, Dr Simmons retrained as a GP and now works as a rural generalist in Proserpine in the Whitsundays.
 
Dr Edmund Bruce Spork, Newstead, Queensland
Reason for honour: For service to the community through a range of organisations.
 
Bio: After gaining RACGP Fellowship in 1971, Dr Spork has been heavily involved in looking after the welfare of older people in the communities where he has worked. A GP at Ascot Medical Centre for 55 years, he was also a founder of the Hamilton District Senior Citizens Club. He remains involved in the Rotary Club of Hamilton.
 
Dr Furio John Virant, Penshurst, NSW
Reason for honour: For service to medicine through a range of roles.
 
Bio: Dr Virant has served his local community at the Ray Rickard Medical Centre since 1978 and used to lecture at Western Sydney University’s School of Medicine. A former lieutenant in the Australian Navy, Dr Virant is a life member of the RACGP. 
 
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