NZMA Bestows Three Awards

The New Zealand Medical Association this week honoured three medical practitioners for their contribution to the health sector.

A Fellowship of the NZMA was bestowed on former Chairman Dr Pippa MacKay, for her outstanding contribution to the NZMA and to the medical profession in New Zealand.

The inaugural recipients of NZMA Chairman's Awards are Dr Peter Roberts and Dr Tim Malloy. Chairman's Awards are given to individuals or organisations who have made an outstanding contribution to health in New Zealand.

Dr Pippa MacKay was the first, and, to date only, woman to chair the NZMA, and made a huge impact with her straight-talking and direct style. Passionate about maternity issues and general practice in particular, she rose to the challenge and tackled many controversial and difficult issues. She graduated from Otago Medical School in 1978 and did postgraduate medical training in England and New Zealand. Since 1987 she has worked as a general practitioner obstetrician at the Ilam Medical Centre, Christchurch.

Her involvement with the NZMA began in 1988. She became Chairman in 1999 and held that position for two years, until April this year. She has also been a board member of the Southern Regional Health Authority, a member of the Sector Reference Group for the New Zealand Health and Disability Strategy, and a member of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Sector Reference Group. Her latest appointment is in a somewhat new direction: from September she has been the wine writer for the Christchurch Press, with her column entitled, appropriately, Pippa's Wine Surgery.

Dr Peter Roberts, President of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, has been a tireless advocate for public health and hospital specialists over the last decade. Originally hailing from West Virginia, he has lived in Wellington for the past two decades and is an intensive care specialist and clinical leader of internal medicine at Wellington Hospital.

He graduated from West Virginia University Medical School in 1974, and came to Wellington in 1978. He began his career in medical industrial relations in 1984, and took up a vacancy on the ASMS executive in 1989, becoming President in 1997.

After ASMS voted to support the Coalition for Public Health in 1991, he became active in its steering group and was spokesman from 1992 to 1997, regularly delivering a different perspective on the New Zealand's health system changes.

His other current positions include membership of the NZMA member Specialists' Committee, the Medical Leaders Forum, and New Zealand Medical Journal Editorial Board. He chairs the RACP Intensive Care Specialist Accreditation Committee, and is medical director of Wellington Free Ambulance.

Dr Tim Malloy, President of the Rural General Practice Network, has made a huge contribution to the medical profession in rural areas of New Zealand.

Dr Malloy graduated from Auckland Medical School in 1981. After deciding to work in a rural environment he moved to Northland and has worked in rural general practice ever since. He is based at Wellsford and has helped develop a rural primary care team delivering services to a region covering more than 100km in diameter.

Dr Malloy says his role as family practitioner, covering the spectrum from birth to death, has offered him insights into the spirit of his community - such as the strength of character that rural people display under adversity. He started lobbying for rural health, and the rural health workforce in particular, about 10 years ago when he joined the Rural GP Network. He has represented the Network on the NZMA's General Practitioner Council since its inception, and was a founding member and later Chairman of the Northern Rural GP Consortium.

Both Dr Roberts and Dr Malloy are staunch supporters of the NZMA.

The citations for the three award winners, with more details, are available from the NZMA National Office.

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