Dr Joseph Romeo and Dr Marian Dover were announced as the two recipients of prestigious awards recently during the Rural GPs Conference Dinner at the Manly Pacific Hotel, Manly.

Dr Rachel Christmas, President, RDA NSW, took great pleasure in presenting the awards to Dr Romeo and Dr Dover in front of their family, friends, peers and sponsors to acknowledge their years of dedication to rural medicine and their communities.

Dr Romeo received the Bill Hunter Award in recognition of the 31 years that he has dedicated to rural health, plus three years to procedural/rural training.

Dr Romeo has exemplified all attributes of rural generalism by instigating two expansions of the medical centre, hosting 23 registrars and 12 overseas trained doctors.

He practised obstetrics until the hospital stopped due to the midwife shortage and practised anaesthetics, answering calls to emergencies out of town and taught countless medical students. Over the years Dr Romeo has delivered mental health and methadone outside of rural health.

He is an elder at his church and leads the music team. An Easter musical that he wrote was staged in the local community over four seasons, which attracted 10,000-plus attendees.

Dr Romeo has participated in many concerts, charity functions to provide musical entertainment and he has also been involved in a couple of Australian Doctor Orchestra performances and doctors’ band at WONCA and continuing.

Dr Dover received the Bowman Cutter Award to recognise her dedication to providing exceptional services to the RDA NSW. Dr Dover has been a valued RDAA Board member and a representative on various committees, providing a powerful early career/doctor in training voice for NSW.

She has contributed towards political issues related to rural health through her exceptional advocacy for maternity services in NSW. She has been in multiple campaigns to attract junior doctors to rural medicine and fostered her colleagues in advocating for their careers and rural health.

The Rural Practice Managers Conference was hosted by Rural Doctors Network (RDN) drew around 80 enthusiastic delegates to participate in rural-focused education sessions and opportunities to network with peers. It took place as part of Rural Health Month, a series of multidisciplinary training and networking events hosted by Rural Health Pro, a social enterprise of RDN.

“This is always my favourite event of the year because it’s an opportunity to provide and give back through education to the practice managers who are often the unsung heroes in practice,” said RDN Practice and Workforce Manager Lucinda Coble.

“The practice manager is the nucleus of the practice, so if there’s any problems everything comes to the practice manager. So RDN has recognised that and provided this opportunity for the last five years as part of Rural Health Month, so that practice managers have an opportunity to come together.

The Conference not only affords practice managers an opportunity for structured educational sessions, but also for extensive networking with fellow rural practice managers, doctors and other industry professionals, with groups like the ACRRM and RACGP represented at the expo stalls at the venue.