Otago’s Associate Professor Lesley Gray has been recognised for her decades of dedication to general practice and rural hospital medicine with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP).
The RNZCGP awards Honorary Fellowship to individuals of distinction, including those who are not medical graduates, for outstanding contributions to general practice or the medical profession in general.
Associate Professor Lesley Gray
College President and Senior Lecturer on the Wellington campus, Dr Samantha Murton, says Associate Professor Gray’s passion for education and research demonstrates her dedication to general practice and rural hospital medicine, crucial to building a well-resourced and sustainable workforce.
“Ensuring medical students get a first-hand look at what it is truly like to work in primary care, seeing the diversity of patients and the sheer volume of knowledge we draw upon is so important if we are to continue growing our own GPs and rural hospital doctors.
“Her research provides our members with resources and information on a wide range of topics that enhance our own learning, practice, and education.”
Associate Professor Gray joined the University in 2008. In her role as module convenor in the Department of Primary Health Care & General Practice she has supported more than 1,500 final-year medical students through their six-week immersion GP module. She routinely supports around 45 general practices each year to host students in locations ranging from Wellington to Whanganui and as far north as Tairāwhiti.
Associate Professor Gray says the honour is particularly special given an Honorary Fellowship is not awarded every year, and the last recipient was Sir Ashley Bloomfield in 2022.
“It is a huge honour to have my academic work, and effectively much of my working life before I became an academic, recognised and honoured.”
That includes the work she began in 1994 providing support for rural GPs and rural hospitals, when she was based in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland.
“I was delighted to have my nomination supported by University of Otago colleagues and distinguished RNZCGP Fellows, Associate Professor Ben Gray (no relation), and former Head of the Department of Primary Health Care & General Practice, Professor Sue Pullon and by long-time colleague and rural Scottish Island GP Dr Brian Michie. It was lovely also to have support from a former medical student on the Wellington campus, Dr Rhys Parry, now an experienced GP and a Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care Fellow, who teaches current medical students on GP placements.
“Now more than ever, there is high need for great GPs, especially in our rural communities across Aotearoa,” she says.
Associate Professor Gray gained her Masters in Public Health (Glasgow) and Master of Science in Interprofessional Collaboration (London) before being awarded Fellowship of the UK Faculty of Public Health. She has more than 30 years' experience establishing services in Public Health and Primary Care and held lecturing roles with Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry before moving to New Zealand in 2008. She completed her PhD in Emergency Management through the centre for Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University, Wellington in 2022.
Her research has been published in almost 60 externally peer-reviewed journals, encompassing a broad range of topics, including collaborative teamwork, medicines management, health equity and COVID-19, gender diversity, weight stigma and bias, and interprofessional education.
The award was announced at the College’s Conference for General Practice GP24 which was held in Wellington from 25 to 28 July.