Community & Business
7 November, 2024
Distinguished service award for local GP
AN ATHERTON doctor described as a “trailblazer” has received a 2024 Distinguished Service Award from the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) for his exceptional contributions to rural healthcare in Australia.
Dr Neil Beaton was presented with the award in Darwin in October at the Rural Medicine Australia (RMA) conference - the biggest annual conference for rural and remote doctors nationally.
ACRRM President Dr Rod Martin said Dr Beaton’s work in training and educating rural and remote doctors had been instrumental in uniting Rural Generalist Anaesthetists (RGAs) and ensuring continuity of care in remote areas.
“He has been a trailblazer ... his vision and leadership have inspired many doctors and greatly improved healthcare access in rural Australia,” he said.
But with a hint of a Yorkshire accent, this medical equivalent of a sports all-rounder has travelled an interesting road to land on the Tablelands.
Speaking with The Express last week, Dr Beaton said his preference for rural practice dated back to his roots in Yorkshire, England, where he was born, and where he first studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
First training in generalist medicine, he broadened his skills to include obstetrics, emergency medicine and a diploma in anaesthetics from the General College of Anaesthetists, for his work “in country practices on the edge of the Yorkshire moors”.
More pragmatically, the broader skills meant he was eligible to work overseas, which could satisfy a travelling bug both he and his partner Clare had.
“We rode around the country on a motorbike, then got work in Portland, Victoria,” he said.
“Then we went to New Zealand, and then back to Portland. We worked in Vanuatu, then spent three years in Katherine.
“We both did a stress management course then went home and got married,” he finished with a laugh, adding that his wife, Dr Clare Jukka, should be getting the award.
Dr Beaton said they returned to Portland, but decided to move north.
“I came to the Tablelands in 1991 as a GP and was interested in Aboriginal Health and worked with Wuchopperen [Health Service] for six years in Cairns,” he said.
“We set up the Mulungu outreach service in Mareeba.”
Mulungu Aboriginal Corporation Primary Healthcare Service now operates in Mareeba, Atherton and Kuranda.
“I also got interested in curriculum development and worked as an Associate Professor at JCU,” he said.
Dr Beaton was instrumental in developing the Rural Generalist Anaesthetists training courses, which meant qualified generalists could add anaesthesia to their skills or remote work.
He chaired the ACRRM Anaesthetic Expert Reference Group and played a pivotal role in the creation of the Advanced Certificate in Rural Generalist Anaesthesia (ACRGA).
The work was hailed for uniting generalists and anaesthetists for the benefit of rural health.
Dr Beaton worked at Atherton Hospital until 2009 and was Director of the Regional Medical Services for six years “until I was not”, when funding was cut. He returned to Atherton and Mareeba hospitals as Senior Medical Officer.
“But I’m winding down a bit,” he said after finishing his abridged history.
“I have taken a year off”.
This meant he could enjoy the home on acreage by the lake.
“We have colleagues who live around there and we play on the lake a lot,” he said happily.
But he is not finished with rural medical services. It has been in him from the get-go.
“By the time I arrived in Australia, GPs were different in the cities in the early 90s,” he mused. “I trained to be a generalist, and a country GP does it all, delivering babies, emergency response, the lot. In the cities, not so much.”
He railed at “the inequity of it all – there’s more funding in the cities, less for rural and indigenous health...”.
“But we’ll keep battling away,” he said.
