President’s Service Medal awarded for dedication to general practice and rural health workforce

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners President’s Service Medal has been awarded to four very deserving recipients at GP24: the Conference for General Practice in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

The President’s Service Medal recognises outstanding contributions to the College or the Division of Rural Hospital Medicine.

College President Dr Samantha Murton who congratulated the recipients during Saturday’s Fellowship and Awards ceremony says, “This group are all well known to me and I’m glad I had the opportunity to congratulate them.

“Each of these recipients are champions for the general practice and rural hospital medicine workforces. Their dedication to supporting and teaching the next generation of doctors, while advocating for changes that will impact our current workforce is inspiring and they are all very deserving of this award.”

The 2024 recipients are:

Dr Andrew Morgan | Blenheim

Dr Morgan has recently completed his three-year term as Chair of the Division of Rural Hospital Medicine. During this time, he worked tirelessly through periods of uncertainty and change. His strengths lie in the building of relationships within the College, community, and at a national level, which has enabled the Division to grow and strengthen the scope of rural generalism. His leadership and his advocacy for rural hospital medicine is also well-respected within the sector.

His ongoing commitment to the population of Niue is a wonderful example of kaitiakitanga. He worked there as a young GP and has returned there annually over the recent years to provide support and mentor the local clinicians.

Dr Jethro LeRoy | Bay of Plenty

Dr LeRoy has worked primarily in Māori health services in the Bay of Plenty where he is a strong advocate for equity and is always searching for innovative ways to serve his population. He is currently the medical director at Te Puna Ora o Mataatua a large Hauora, and social service provider and an umbrella organisation for Rehua Medical a GP practice in Whakatane. He promotes high quality general practice within the populations that he serves and has guided his team through the Cornerstone accreditation.

Within the College, he started as an examiner 12 years ago, and moved into his current role as Chief Clinical examiner. He is always encouraging and looks at the best ways to assess equity and Hauora Māori within the exam system. Under his guidance the College has a diverse group of examiners and questions that reflect the wide range of work that is carried out in general practice.

Dr LeRoy has also been a GPEP year 1 teacher, hosts medical students and junior doctors (PGY2) and is dedicated to supporting our junior trainees.

Dr Katarina Kirikino-Cox | Auckland

Dr Kirikino-Cox (Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga a Mate) is a passionate advocate for Māori health and thrives when working in Te Ao Māori spaces. Within the College she has worked across many roles, including as a teacher, on the National Advisory Council and the Board of Studies, and as an examiner and a MIHI facilitator. She is also a member of Te Akoranga a Māui and at the heart of her passion is whakawhanaungtanga for Māori GPs. A major driver in her career is the desire to improve health equity for her patients. Working at Turuki Healthcare she sees patients who face many barriers to achieving good health, but she will do everything she can to find ways to overcome these.

Dr Lucy O’Hagan | Wellington

Dr O’Hagan has been involved with the College’s medical education programme for over 25 years, as a GPEP teacher and a medical educator with the Otago and Wellington teams. She now leads the multi-use educators who provide professional development to educators and teachers, and work with registrars who need extra support. This includes her dedication to the Whakatipu programme – which provides extra teaching for GPEP1 registrars who have English as a second language or who registered in New Zealand through the NZREX exam.

Dr O’Hagan is a well-known columnist for New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa, where she uses the power of storytelling to reflect on the complexities of being a GP. She openly shares her personal experiences of burnout and has recently recorded 'Waiting for Covid' an affirming collection of stories about being a GP in the pandemic.

Those in attendance at the Fellowship and Awards ceremony also had the opportunity to hear Dr O’Hagan deliver the ceremony oration where she shared her journey and experiences of working as a frontline GP over the course of her career.