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Oct
25
2017
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has named a ‘highly dedicated’ Kempsey GP as Rural Doctor of the Year for 2017.
Dr Colin Farquharson has given 30 years of service to the people of the Macleay Valley. He’s also been a valued teacher to med students and young doctors, while finding time to advocate on behalf of the rural medical profession and for Kempsey Hospital.
At the awards ceremony, RDAA President Dr Ewen McPhee said Dr Farquharson was a very deserving recipient of the award.
“After moving to Australia from the UK and then graduating from Medicine at the University of Sydney at the relatively late age of 32, Colin took up posts at Wollongong Hospital; the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Camperdown, Sydney; and Katherine Hospital before working as a GP Obstetrician at Kempsey for an initial 10 years.
“He then worked as an Obstetrics Registrar at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle for a short period before returning to Kempsey in 1998 to work as a rural GP with Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) responsibilities in Obstetrics, Paediatrics and Rehabilitation Medicine at Kempsey Hospital.” He has been in that role ever since.
“Along the way, his practice has broadened to include the local Aboriginal Medical Service and working as a doctor at the local Mid North Coast Correctional Centre.”
Dr McPhee said Colin exemplified the quiet but dedicated style of many rural doctors.
“While he is an unassuming man and not one to grandstand, he remains passionate about Rural Medicine, his peers, his patients and his community, and he quietly but regularly lobbies politicians about the profession and in support of local health services. In all his work, Colin has relied on the wonderful support of his wife, Margot.”
Dr Farquharson said while there were challenges to living and working as a doctor in the same small community, what was rewarding was the wonderful interaction with patients.
“I have the cards and small gifts that people who cannot afford much give you. Or the chokos, jam, cake or that gift you cannot buy, which is worth its weight in gold; that is what, on reflection, I find rewarding.
“And of course when it comes to rural obstetrics, there are highlights every year that keep me here, though they are often associated with challenging events like having to deal with the delivery of twins at 24 and 28 weeks’ gestation or having a complicated vaginal breech delivery in 2016.”
Outside of medicine he enjoys walking his border collie, listening to music, reading history and gardening.
“My specialty is bindii cultivation,” he said.
NCPHN congratulates Dr Farquharson on a long and distinguished career of service.
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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land we live and work, the Bundjalung, Arakwal, Yaegl, Gumbaynggirr, Githabul, Dunghutti and Birpai Nations, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future.