Three College Fellows receive 2021 New Year Honours

19 January 2021

The College is absolutely thrilled to congratulate three Fellows who received New Year Honours for their outstanding contribution to general practice. New Zealand Order of Merit awards are given to people in ‘any field of endeavour who have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits.’

The awarded Fellows are:

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr David Kerr, for services to health and business

Dr Kerr worked in general practice in Christchurch from 1976 to 2008 and was a driving force behind the establishment of Pegasus Medical Group in 1992. He chaired the group from 1992 to 1998 and was Clinical Leader Mental Health from 2002 to 2012. He was a director of PHARMAC from 2007 and Deputy Chair from 2010 until 2017.

Dr Kerr was one of the main drivers of the Health Pathways information system and has held several positions on medical advisory boards, particularly around mental health.

He has been a member of the Executive Committee for the Christchurch City Mission Redevelopment campaign, is a Trustee of the Champion Centre for those with intellectual disabilities and was previously a Trustee of Life Education Trust South Island. He has been Chairman of Ryman Health Care Ltd since 1999. Under Dr Kerr’s chairmanship Ryman Healthcare was the first to establish fully integrated retirement villages and has grown to become one of the top five companies in New Zealand.

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr Tim Malloy, for services to health

Dr Tim Malloy has been a rural general practitioner for more than 30 years and has been involved in practice leadership through the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network since the early 1990s.

As Chair of the Network, Dr Malloy has overseen the development of the New Zealand Locum Scheme, the PRIME (Primary Response in a Medical Emergency) scheme and the ACC Rural contract. He currently works at Wellsford Medical Centre, where he and his colleagues have developed a virtual multi-disciplinary integrated family health service to provide high-quality primary care to the local community. He has provided input and advice into several Ministry of Health working groups and was involved in the formation of the General Practice Leaders’ Forum. He was the inaugural Chair of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners’ Rural Faculty and President of the College from 2012 until 2018, overseeing the employment of registrars, the development of a new curriculum, and initiating minimum quality standards for GPs. He established a Memorandum of Understanding between the College and the Cook Islands Ministry of Health in relation to rural training programmes.

Dr Malloy has strongly advocated for primary and rural health care, his patients and GPs throughout New Zealand and was awarded Distinguished Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 2018.

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Dr Anna Dyzel, for services to the community and health 

Dr Dyzel has been a general practitioner in Hokitika since the early 1990s. She conducted research on growing a sustainable health workforce in Hokitika for doctors and nurses and developed standing orders for Rural GPs, which have been adopted by several District Health Boards around the country as well as the Best Practice Advocacy Centre.

She is also very active in her community, and has been involved with projects for Girl Guides, Scouts, St John, and seeding community service opportunities for the Department of Corrections. She was instrumental in initiating and running a major event for New Zealand's Children's Day, initially largely funded by herself and which has grown to an event that sees more than 2,000 people attending free of charge. She arranges fundraising events during the year to help fund this event. She has run the Hokitika Christmas Parade for 15 years and more recently led the fundraising of $20,000 for revamped town Christmas lights. She was instrumental in the establishment of a now well-used skateboard park in Hokitika. She supports Westland Industrial Heritage Park, Hokitika Heritage Inc., the Life Education Trust, and is a member of the Wild Foods Festival committee.