New South Wales
Dr Dong Hua, Practice Principal & Director, Kenyon Street Medical Centre, Fairfield
Dr Hua provides accessible and culturally appropriate GP care to his highly diverse community in Sydney. He played an important role during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to contribute to surveillance and treatment efforts. He has created a multidisciplinary care of nurses, GPs, podiatrists, psychologists, and physiotherapists to help address chronic disease within the community.
Selin Tekirdag, Practice Nurse Manager & Chronic Disease Nurse Manager, Fairfield Chase Medical and Dental Centre, Sydney
Ms Tekirdag is passionate about ensuring health care is available to everyone. She works with culturally diverse communities in Fairfield, in Sydney’s west and supports 28 medical centres across NSW and the ACT as a Chronic Disease Management Nurse Manager. Among her achievements is the establishment of a nurse-led women's health clinic that provides a safe space for women and delivers education and resources to promote mammogram testing, cervical screening, STI protection and contraception. Ms Tekirdag also trains other nurses in chronic disease management, advocating for multidisciplinary care and sharing best practice with staff in regional and remote areas.
Street Side Medics, Sydney and Wollongong, and Melbourne
Staffed by a dedicated a group of volunteer medical professionals, Street Side Medics provide easy access to free health care services to vulnerable individuals across Sydney, Wollongong and Melbourne. Their network of highly equipped vans means they can reach those who would otherwise have little or no access to traditional health care. The team is recognised for its innovative approach to reaching the homeless and vulnerable, meeting patients on their terms and collaborating with charities, shelters, and other services.
Swift Street Medical Centre, Antenatal clinic, Wellington
Swift Street Medical Centre is a dedicated antenatal clinic providing much needed care to the residents of Wellington in regional NSW including First Nations mothers, so that they can receive care close to home and on Country. The enthusiastic multidisciplinary team including 2 GPs, a midwife, and a nurse work collaboratively with the local hospital, Aboriginal Health service and PHN to provide full access to local health services.
Dr Chris Boyle, General Practitioner, Raymond Terrace Family Practice, Raymond Terrace
Dr Boyle is a local GP, who has been serving the Raymond Terrace community for more than 40 years, with a particular passion for men’s health, chronic disease management and heart disease. Throughout his career Dr Boyle has been an early adopter of innovative services and opportunities. In recent years this has included telehealth, e-scripts, My Health Record and e-referral. Dr Boyle is not only dedicated to his patients but also committed to the development of the next generation of doctors.
Dr Siow Liew, General Practitioner, Bidwill Family Practice, Sydney
Dr Liew is a dedicated and long serving GP providing patient-centred and culturally safe care to First Nations and Samoan communities in Western Sydney. His ongoing advocacy for these communities has supported increased screening rates, increased detection of chronic conditions, and ensured timely interventions that have positively impacted health outcomes for his patients.
Kayley Meredith, Chronic Disease Coordinator, Coffs Medical Centre, Coffs Harbour
Miss Meredith established a nurse-led cardiovascular disease prevention clinic in her community which has improved patient health and their experience of care. She is an advocate for nurses and the benefits of nurse-led care. She shares her experiences and knowledge in various forums and contributes to the national conversation around health reform.
Miss Meredith also supports patient empowerment in their healthcare.
Casey Shorter, Practice Manager, Macksville Medical Centre
Ms Shorter has transformed the Macksville Medical Centre from a part-time solo GP practice into a successful model for rural healthcare. It is now a thriving practice of GPs, psychologists, audiologists and occupational therapists that better meets the needs of her community. The centre also provides complementary community services including a free legal advisory outreach service. This successful model for rural health care is a significant outcome for a region with limited access to health services and many vulnerable groups.
Victoria
Springs Medical, Daylesford
The team at Springs Medical in Daylesford provides outstanding patient-centred primary health services to its regional community. Its multidisciplinary team of high-quality healthcare providers go beyond the consulting room. This includes outreach programs in local schools, residential aged care facilities and the local hospital.
Dr Mohammed Alebrahimi, CEO People First Healthcare, Roxburgh Park
Dr Alebrahimi is dedicated to ensuring all people have equal access to health care, particularly members of the migrant community. The drop-in-centre he established in Melbourne’s north provides a broad range of health services, including optometry, radiology and speech pathology. Today, the centre provides wraparound care to all patients through free access to health care and other support services.
Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub, Northcote
The Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub provides free or bulk billed quality care to a highly vulnerable population across Melbourne’s north. The dedicated team of GPs and nurses undertake detailed health assessments of their patients and develop comprehensive care plans. They also work closely with legal, family violence, housing, food, sport and recreation services to fully support the needs of their patients. This team makes an extraordinary difference to the health and lives of their community.
Dr Lester Mascarenhas, General Practitioner, Utopia Refugee Health, Hoppers Crossing
Dr Mascarenhas founded Utopia Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health in Melbourne. The clinic provides access to GPs, visiting specialists, nurses, on-site interpreters and community outreach to patients with complex and often unmet needs. Before its opening, Dr Mascarenhas spent a year consulting with the community to ensure the clinic provided the services they required and to gain their ongoing support.
Dr Nalin Fonseka, General Practitioner, Silverline Healthcare, Mildura
Dr Fonseka is an advocate of accessibility to health care for all. He has spent 17 years caring for patients in a regional community, including First Nations People and those experiencing financial hardship. He regularly extends his working hours and conducts home visits to meet community needs. He supports the development of junior doctors, which is critically important in a regional community.
WRAD Health Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Dependence Program, Warrnambool
The team at WRAD Health provide an innovative model of care to support a vulnerable and under-served regional community, with outreach and multidisciplinary care. It takes a multidisciplinary, collaborative and holistic approach and provides bulk billed access to GPs, nursing, psychiatry, allied health and peer services. The service ensures patients receive comprehensive support that addresses their immediate medical needs and the broader social, psychological, and environmental factors influencing their health.
Dr Erin Dolan, Clinical Psychologist, Migdala House, Warragul
Dr Dolan is a clinical psychologist committed to providing psychological support services across the local community. For the past decade she has funded and provided a weekly free wellbeing group meeting for people with severe mental health needs. Dr Dolan contributes to research initiatives to improve mental health service delivery for young people in rural areas, including internationally. She also helps establish programs to support vulnerable communities.
GROW Clinical Psychology, Roxburgh Park
GROW Clinical Psychology delivers culturally sensitive, bulk billed mental health services to a vulnerable multicultural community in Melbourne’s north-west. As part of its commitment to accessibility, intake and consent forms are translated into the first languages of their community, and treatment is offered in multiple languages. GROW promotes the importance of mental health and works to reduce the stigma of mental health challenges, with a focus on community outreach.
Dr Belinda McDonald, General Practitioner, Better Health Network, South Melbourne
Dr McDonald is a long-serving GP who has made a significant contribution to ensuring equitable access to health care, including for those managing addiction. She has established programs that have enabled patients to turn their lives around. Colleagues say these programs been life-saving for many clients. Dr McDonald also supports fellow GPs to provide outstanding care to patients with drug dependency.
Dr Chloe Jansz, Director of Nursing Services, Healthcare United, Footscray
Dr Jansz is a nurse practitioner dedicated to exceptional care, particularly for wound care, diabetes and chronic disease management. She is committed to promoting the wellbeing of her patients and ensuring cost-effective, evidence-based care. Ms Jansz’s ongoing commitment to mentoring her staff and other nursing students is evident in the positive patient outcomes consistently achieved by her staff. Dr Jansz has been driving up to three hours on her weekends to provide rural Victorian communities with wound, diabetes and continence care services. These patients would not normally have access to this service.
Dr Geetha Venkatram, General Practitioner, Broadford Medical Clinic, Broadford
Dr Venkatram has dedicated her 20-year career to providing patient care to the Broadford community. She has a focus on mental health and supporting the welfare of veterans. Dr Venkatram is also committed to supporting the health workforce by mentoring and supervising international medical graduate registrars. This ensures there are enough doctors to serve the community and helps these doctors navigate the Australian healthcare system.
Queensland
Dr John Buckley, General Practitioner, Coochiemudlo
Dr Buckley is a long-term GP, dedicated to patient-centred care, particularly in rural and regional areas. For more than 40 years he has worked to ensure better health outcomes for his patients. He has provided training and support for the next generation of doctors. Dr Buckley has also worked closely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to develop culturally sensitive teaching for health practitioners.
Jannah De-Bressac, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner, Carbal Medical Services, Warwick
Mrs De-Bressac is a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner, committed to assisting her community navigate the healthcare system. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was among the first to complete First Nations COVID-19 vaccination training. This allowed her to play an active role in educating and vaccinating many members of her community, significantly improving local vaccination rates. Mrs De-Bressac has continued her focus on vaccination uptake, becoming the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner in Queensland to complete the First Nations Immunisation Course.
Lilly Masters, Chronic Disease Management Coordinator, Doctors of Tewantin, Tewantin
Mrs Masters is committed to innovation and patient-centred primary care, including chronic disease management and support for elderly, diabetic, First Nations and veteran patients. She has streamlined systems to improve healthcare programs, including health, heart and diabetes care. Mrs Masters has strongly advocated for a high standard for chronic disease management in an ageing community.
Inala Primary Care, Inala
Inala Primary Care delivers critical services to some of Queensland’s most disadvantaged patients with complex health needs. The practice is recognised for its innovation and commitment to serving a diverse and vulnerable community. Its innovative models of care have been replicated across Queensland and nationally. The team continues to explore ways to provide better value and more comprehensive care that meets the needs of patients, providers, partners and funders.
Mater Integrated Refugee Health Service, South Brisbane
Mater Integrated Refugee Health Service is recognised for its dedication and innovative approach to providing health care to the refugee community. Its model of having stated-funded specialist refugee health nurses in carefully selected general practices enables specialised, person-centred, time-intensive and value-based care. The dedicated team works together to help patients from this community, many with complex health needs, to navigate the Australian healthcare system.
Western Australia
Dr Lorraine Anderson, Medical Director, Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, Broome
Dr Anderson provides a holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people and their communities. She is a leader who works closely with many Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to ensure high standards of care and continuous improvement. Dr Anderson has played an important role in health policy at all levels of government.
Gabrielle Sepe, Practice Nurse Manager, Rockingham Medical Centre, Rockingham
Ms Gabrielle Sepe is dedicated to building and fostering a strong team of nurses to improve patient care.
She played an integral role in establishing a dedicated women’s health centre, and also a model to support LGBTQIA+ patients. Miss Sepe supports future workforce development and clinical placements for students, bolstering the nursing workforce in the region.
Laura Stewart, Pharmacist & Proprietor, Pharmacy 777, Karratha
Mrs Laura Stewart is a pharmacist from the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia who supports her rural community through the provision of high-quality community pharmacy services. As well as her three pharmacies, Mrs Stewart has established a pharmacy outreach service for local Aboriginal Health Service. She has also expanded services to better meet the needs of the fly-in-fly-out mining workforce and allied industries. Having mentored more than 150 students, Mrs Stewart supports the recruitment and retention of strong rural health teams for the future.
Homeless Healthcare Medical Respite Centre, Perth
Homeless Healthcare’s Medical Respite Centre is the first of its kind in Australia, providing health and social services to those experiencing homelessness or without suitable conditions to manage their health. It gives patients somewhere safe to recover, prevents hospital admissions and supports patients with a full scope of health services.
The success of the service, which opened as a pilot in 2021, is a testament to the team’s resilience and commitment to the people it supports.
Pramana Medical Centre, Gosnells
The multidisciplinary team at Pramana Medical Centre provide wraparound support to more than 6,000 patients, 60 per cent who are First Nations people, and the remaining from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, are homeless, or people with disability. The dedicated team work together with an emphasis on addressing the social determinants of their patients' healthcare in parallel with their medical needs.
South Australia
Mallee Border Health Centre, Pinnaroo
Mallee Border Health is a nurse practitioner-led multidisciplinary primary health care centre, caring for thousands of regional patients including veterans, migrants and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. The team is recognised for its innovative model that has improved health care in a region that has long struggled to retain GPs and other primary health services.
Tasmania
Dr Miranda Hann, General Practitioner, Ochre Health, Hobart
Dr Hann has worked to break down barriers and ensure equal access to health care for diverse and vulnerable communities, particularly the LGBTQIA+ community in Hobart. As well as offering safe, trauma-informed care to her patients, she has worked to support other healthcare professionals to deliver multidisciplinary community-driven care. By providing a safe referrals list, and information and support on gender affirming care, she has made a significant positive impact on the LGBTQIA+ community in Tasmania.
Australian Capital Territory
Gareth Wheeldon, Pharmacist, Capital Chemist University of Canberra, Canberra
Canberra Pharmacist Gareth Wheeldon, in partnership with a local community-controlled organisation, is delivering health care to vulnerable and marginalised communities. He provides free vaccinations to people living with or impacted by HIV, the LGBTQIA+ community, and people at risk of HIV and STIs. Uniquely, Mr Wheeldon also provides vaccinations to sex workers in their places of business. The success of this program has led to the appointment of a nurse vaccinator who can now also provide additional vaccines to these groups.
Dr Andrew Palfreman, General Practitioner & Director, Watson General Practice, Watson ACT
Dr Palfreman is committed to providing patient-centred and innovative care to deliver better health for his patients. He uses innovative technologies, including AI, to reduced administration time and make more time available for longer and urgent consultations with his patients. Dr Palfreman works with Canberra’s 'Chat to PAT' bus service which offers free health care to vulnerable and homeless Canberrans.
Next Practice Canberra, Deakin
The multidisciplinary team at Next Practice Canberra uses an innovative model of ‘integrated practice units’ to support their patients’ needs, with a focus on people living in residential aged care, people with disability and those with palliative care needs. The team work together to provide individualised and coordinated care to patients both onsite and virtually through enhanced telehealth appointments.
Northern Territory
Midwifery Group Practice, Top End Health Service, Darwin
The Midwifery group practice, Top End Health Service, has made an extraordinary difference to the lives of many women and their families living in the Top End, particularly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Their impact on primary health care is far reaching, with an innovative model that integrates midwifery care with broader health services, setting families up for success and giving babies the best start in life.