AN IRISH-born doctor and Trinity College Dublin graduate has been named general practitioner of the year in Australia.
Dr Christine Boyce, originally from Carrigart, Co Donegal and now living and working as a family doctor in Tasmania, received a 5,000 Australian dollar travel scholarship at the annual scientific meeting of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) in Melbourne last week.
The scholarship was awarded in recognition of her service to general practice and to the Tasmanian community.
Presenting the award, RACGP president Dr Chris Mitchell said: "Dr Boyce is a truly outstanding general practitioner. Through her focus on quality patient care and her enthusiastic advocacy of general practice as an excellent and rewarding career, Dr Boyce is inspiring the next generation of GPs and her patients."
Christine Boyce runs an open access refugee health clinic at her practice which specifically caters for the health needs of local refugees. Supported by a free telephone interpreter service and a network of volunteers, the clinic caters for refugees who have come to Australia from Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi.
According to Dr Boyce, "Our biggest medical challenge, once acute problems have been addressed, is managing the sequelae of torture and trauma. We end up going on the journey with these brave people as they attempt to put the past behind them and move on with their new lives."
Dr Boyce is also involved in providing GP care to adolescents in the western suburbs of Hobart and has developed guidelines on youth suicide prevention. She teaches undergraduate students at the University of Tasmania medical school and is a supervisor for the general practice training programme in Tasmania.
After graduation in 1987 and internship at St James's Hospital, Dublin, Dr Boyce worked at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary in Wales before moving to Australia to pursue a career in general practice.