College members receive Queen's Birthday Honours

The College would like the congratulate Distinguished Fellow Dr Janet Frater and Dual Fellow Dr Derek Gibbons on their Queen's Birthday Honours. 

Dr Janet Frater

Dr Frater has been recognised as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her services as a GP.

Auckland-based Dr Frater has worked at her Balmoral practice for 39 years and became a Distinguished Fellow of the College in 2010. 

She has been a significant contributor to the College over the years. As well as serving on the Board of the Auckland Faculty and being a Primex examiner, she was a seminar facilitator for many years, and, from 2007-2012 led the seminar programme in Auckland. She has also worked with registrars as they went through their GPEP1 and GPEP2 training.

Dr Frater has held several roles at the Medical Council of New Zealand. She led the mentoring programme and was a competence reviewer and an educational supervisor. It was in this last role that she developed an interest in doctor health and burnout.

After working in a mission hospital in Tansen, Nepal, Dr Frater brought her interest of the health of aid and mission workers back to New Zealand. She found she was able to better understand the cultural differences that international medical graduates, especially from Asia, brought to their roles as GPs in New Zealand.

Dr Derek Gibbons

Dr Gibbons has spent the last 45 years working in the Dargaville community and has been recognised with Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to health. He is a Dual Fellow of the College.

Through his advocacy with government health authorities, he was instrumental in the success of retaining Dargaville’s hospital as well as ensuring that the community owned a 46 percent share of it.

Dr Gibbons was heavily involved in the establishment of a total healthcare centre, based at the hospital, and negotiated a contract for the Dargaville Medical Centre to take over patient care from the DHB. This resulted in a steady supply of on-call doctors and created a round-the-clock medical service for the area.

He also chaired the Dargaville Medical Centre for 25 years and helped to establish the Kaipara Community Health Trust and Kaipara Health Incorporated.