IWD: ‘The trust bestowed in me has always been humbling’

When Associate Professor Magda Simonis was a medical intern, she had ‘no idea what area of medicine I’d be attracted to’.
 
She tried her hand at obstetrics and gynaecology and emergency medicine, finding fulfilment in both specialties and potential career paths.
 
But it would eventually be general practice that Associate Professor Simonis would choose, and since that day, she has cemented herself as a leading voice and advocate for women’s healthcare and medical equity for all.
 
‘I gained comprehensive training, and it eventually became evident that general practice enabled me to combine all my interests,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘When in practice, being female helped me evolve my women’s health expertise through listening, empathising and giving my patients more time.’
 
‘Very early on in my career, I learned that the more you ask, the more you find out about the person in the room with you and I realised that I could never keep to time, so I abandoned the notion of cutting people off in order to run to a tight schedule.’
 
As well as being a Melbourne-based GP, Associate Professor Simonis is a frequent health commentator, as her career has evolved to include public speaking and media and health communication including radio, podcasting, and a regular health column for The Australian.
 
She was part of a delegation fronting the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and in 2023, she received a Member of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours.
 
And next month, Associate Professor Simonis will be sharing her story at the Victorian leg of the RACGP’s International Women’s Day event series, alongside Dr Tasha Patel, Dr Rebecca Starkie, Dr Sara Whitburn, Dr Pallavi Sharma, and Dr Meenakshi Tomar.
 
Associate Professor Simonis said the advocacy aspect of her career and involvement in policy would evolve over time, spurred on by a want to create change.
 
‘It was a combination of my frustration with barriers to equitable healthcare that directly affected my patients as well as my own background of being raised by a single mother who was a migrant with broken English,’ she said.
 
‘Being bilingual, Greek and English, also meant I saw a lot of Greek elderly female patients who wanted to see a doctor they could talk to and with whom they did not feel embarrassed discussing sensitive issues or being examined.
 
‘The trust bestowed in me has always been humbling.’
 
But within women’s health, Associate Professor Simonis said major improvements are still needed in the training of medical students and early career doctors.
 
‘We need to ensure that women’s health is not seen as just a female GP’s career path,’ she said.
 
‘The social determinants of health affect women profoundly and as doctors, we need to consider these factors, and the roles women play in their homes, families and their workplace too.
 
‘Australia is a vast country with areas that can’t service the specific health needs of the women who live there.
 
‘Women need to receive healthcare close to where they live due to their other carer roles and work constraints.’
 
And as Associate Professor Simonis continues to promote the vital importance of promoting and improving women’s healthcare, her advice to younger female GPs is to ‘throw themselves into community work outside of their practice work’.
 
‘This is where we can really have an impact, and I also believe it’s important to not forget who you were before you became a doctor,’ she said.
 
‘Keep a part of that person with you all the time and do things daily that are nourishing for your emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
 
‘Don’t rush and don’t feel the pressure to do more all the time.
 
‘Practise daily gratitude – being a GP is a wonderful privilege, and we do important work.
 
‘Remember that every day, we are making life a bit better for the people who see us in their vulnerable state.’
 
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘March Forward’, and RACGP events are taking place across Australia and online from 5–11 March; proudly supported by Major Partners, Gedeon Richter and Bayer.
 
Find out more about the speakers in your state and secure your spot now.
 
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