NorDocs Board 2021 Dr Louise Imlay-Gillespie is the new Chair of the Northern Rivers Medical Network (NorDocs) for 2021. Louise came to the North Coast in 2016 and has worked as a haematologist at LIsmore Base and Grafton District Hospitals since then. She has recently returned from maternity leave on a parttime basis following the birth of her son, Fox. We congratulate Louise and her husband, oncologist Joe Gormally, on this happy event. Joe has also been a member of the NorDocs Board the past two years. Louise was instrumental in organising various education events at Lismore Base Hospital, including the physicians’ weekend and the NorDocs Unconferences in 2018 and 2019. Under her guidance NorDocs hopes to build further on the hospital based education program. Dr Nathan Kesteven, the former Chair, stays on as Vice-Chair. Nathan has championed improvement in education and communication for all North Coast
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doctors. Louise and Nathan aim to foster improved communication and build stronger professional relationships between primary and secondary health care. Also joining the Board is Dr David Glendinning. David is a former engineer and project manager who retrained as a medical practitioner here on the North Coast, first through the University of Wollongong training program and then in the North Coast hospital system. On page 38 David describes his journey into medicine and expands on this in a recent episode of Destination’s podcast, where rural graduates talk of their decisions to become rural doctors. (See link on page 38). David has also worked extensively with Lismore Base Hospital on various eHealth and JMO education initiatives. He was the Director of the Assistants in Medicine program last year that allowed final year medical students to act as interns with limited responsibilities. The
program was devised as a way of increasing medical manpower in the hospital system during the early stages of the pandemic in preparation for the anticipated large numbers of patients who might have required hospital treatment for COVID-19. David was also an unsuccessful candidate for 2021 Board membership of the North Coast Primary Health Network. Continuing on the Board is surgeon Trafford Fehlberg. Trafford has worked as a general surgeon in a local private practice since April 2019, and before that in Timor-Leste. In November 2020 he was appointed as the inaugural staff specialist general surgeon at Lismore Base Hospital, and now consults from the outpatients clinic at Lismore Base Hospital. Trafford and his wife Zoe have also recently had a son, Tasman. We trust the demands of patients and children do not cause too many sleepless nights for them both. Trafford’s 2019 presentation on his
surgical experiences in Timor-Leste is
