Rural Doctor Awarded For Two Decades Of Care, Here And In Africa - Rural Doctors Association of Australia

Main Category: Public Health
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A country doctor has taken out a national award for more than 20 years of dedicated service to his community in northern Victoria.

Dr Lindsay Sherriff, who practises in Kerang, has advanced skills in anaesthetics, obstetrics, and child health, said he and his wife Dianne, who is also a doctor, had always planned to be a 'Jack and Jill of medicine' since they were in medical school.

"We weren't sure if we would practise here or in a developing country, but we knew we had to expand our skills to cope a wide range of disease and injury," Dr Sherriff explains.

"As well as seeing patients in general practice, you can be called on to deliver babies, deal with farm or road accidents, do minor surgery, help people deal with their grief and depression, and educate the community about staying healthy."

Dr Sherriff is also recognised as a keen teacher and mentor. His citation says that he has 'a deep passion' for training the next generations of rural doctors. His Fitzroy Street Medical Clinic, which he shares with four other doctors, takes in four medical students a year, and has been training registrars for the past 18 years.

Dr Sherriff's award was the ACRRM-RDAA Peter Graham 'Cohuna' Award, instigated by Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine and presented at the Rural Medicine Australia 2010 conference in Hobart. The late Dr Peter Graham practiced in Cohuna, 30 kms west of Kerang.

"I love the variety and challenge of rural and remote practice and the feeling that you are making a real difference in people's lives daily," he said.

He and Dianne are fulfilling their student-days dream of helping out in developing countries. They travel to Tanzania, Africa, at intervals to run clinics.

"Often we are in the open air and you can have extended family and other villagers listening in on consultations," he said. "Although patients in Tanzania have different ailments from those in Kerang, there are universals: parents want their children to be well; elders struggle with their growing frailty."

Dr Sherriff said that his commitment to healing is an extension of his Christian faith.

"Doctors are often expected to perform miracles, especially in rural practice," he explains. "You do your best and sometimes it is just not good enough to save an individual life. That's when you need an external source of strength and for me that strength comes from my wife and the great physician, God."

Dr Sherriff said he knew the eponymous Dr Peter Graham and was honoured to receive such a prestigious individual award.

"He told me he did his first epidural in 1957, which was before I was born. What better source of medical knowledge could you have?"

Dr Sherriff said that the late Dr Graham had been his inspiration for teaching and mentoring medical students and young doctors.

"Rural medical practice is absolutely open ended. You need never stop learning, training, or teaching because you never know when that new skill or additional knowledge can be used to change a life for the better."

Source:
Rural Doctors Association of Australia

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