Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I often rise in this place to lament the lack of country doctors, and I must say I'm quite happy today to have a good story to tell. Dr Holly Deer from Crystal Brook in my electorate of Grey has received recognition as GP of the year for SA and NT by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in their 2022 awards. She will go on now to represent South Australia at the national awards. She joined the practice in 2012, having been a GP registrar at the Crystal Brook clinic before that time.

Holly has become a trusted and respected member of the Crystal Brook community, and they really enjoy having her there. She has married to a local businessman and that's a very good thing to do. She now has a family of her own growing up in the mid-north town. In fact, when I rang up Holly the other day to give her my personal congratulations, a couple of those children were making a bit of noise. Like a lot of mothers, she managed to juggle that.

I commend Dr Richard Mackinnon whose foresight and commitment to rural practice has seen the Crystal Brook Medical Practice not only service the local community with a team of doctors but also become an accredited training practice for registrars, interns and medical students. It is the envy of many regional centres. I just wish I had many more places like Crystal Brook that could attract the number of doctors we need. They provide specialist and allied health services and are a teaching practice.