Top-performing GPs Celebrated In College Awards

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is today celebrating 12 high-achieving GPs with the announcement of its annual award recipients. This year GPs have been recognised in six categories.

Dr Chris Reid (UK, formerly Northland) and Dr Graham McGeoch (Governors Bay) have been awarded Distinguished Fellowship for their services to rural health and business innovation in general practice.

Four GPs have been awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for their service to the College and their GP peer groups, including Dr Simon Mayhew (Auckland) who is well-known for his work in sports medicine. Dr Graeme Kidd of Auckland has been awarded a Community Service Medal for his compassionate work with mental health patients and the connection between mental and physical wellbeing.

New this year is the Dr Amjad Hamid Medal, which memorialises a popular rural heart doctor murdered in the Christchurch terrorist attack of 2019. The award, which is for the top mark in the University of Otago’s cardiorespiratory medicine for rural hospitals paper, has been won by Dr Caitlin Whitford a young Taumarunui GP.

Another high achiever is French Dr Elodie Mazoyer, a Christchurch GP who has been awarded the Humphrey Rainey Prize for Excellence for her top marks in the College’s written and clinical GP exams, a feat she achieved in her second language, English.

Joining them with Honorary Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners is Ross Lawrenson, Professor of Population Health at The University of Waikato who has been honoured for his unfaltering commitment to primary care and rural health.

Ms Wendy Finnie of Dunedin and Ms Jillian Muirhead of Wanaka are ultrasound teachers who’ve also been awarded Honorary Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners for their invaluable work designing and teaching modules that skill rural GPs in using ultrasound and echocardiography.

President of the College, Dr Samantha Murton says, "Rewarding the work of some of our most outstanding GPs always fills me with pride because we get to publicly recognise the incredible job, they do in their communities every day.

"GPs and rural hospital doctors are the heart of the community and these awards are a great way to demonstrate the respect and esteem we have for the professional of general practice medicine," she says.

The College’s awards would traditionally be presented in a special ceremony at the College’s annual conference. However, this year the conference and ceremony were cancelled because of COVID-19. The 2020 award winners will be formally recognised during the 2021 College conference.

Distinguished Fellowship Dr Chris Reid, UK (formerly Northland) Dr Graham McGeoch, Governors Bay Distinguished Service Medal Dr Ian Gilbertson, Cambridge Dr Tanya Quin, Okaihau Dr Chandrakkanth (Chandra) Jayaraman, Auckland Dr Simon Mayhew, Auckland

Community Service Medal Dr Graeme Kidd, Auckland

Dr Amjad Hamid Medal (new) Dr Caitlin Whitford, Taumarunui

Humphrey Rainey Prize for Excellence Dr Elodie Mazoyer, Christchurch

Honorary Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Professor Ross Lawrenson, Hamilton Ms Wendy Finnie, Dunedin Ms Jillian Muirhead, Wanaka

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