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This year’s public health champion would like to see more doctors go beyond their surgeries.
Kaitaia general practitioner Lance O’Sullivan was given the tohu at last week’s Public Health Association to recognise the work he is doing in schools and the community in the far north to address common illnesses and diseases associated with poverty.
He says many services, such as heart checks and immunisation, can be delivered effectively out in the community rather than waiting for people to book a visit to their general practitioner.
"There’s lots of things we do in the walls of our clinic that I don’t think need to be done. I would like to see a heart bus, a bus like we’ve got breast screening buses going around the country, which would do heart checks on especially Maori and Pacific men, drive up to their communities and roll it in and roll it out," Dr O’Sullivan says.
The award is a challenge to do more, and that means trying new ideas.
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