WONCA rural practice award presented to Dr Bruce Chater

The WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice Award for Outstanding Service to Rural Practice presented to Dr Bruce Chater, of Queensland, Australia,  at the WONCA World Rural Health Conference, Gramado, Brazil, April 2014. Pictured above is Bruce (Centre) with from (l to r) Dr Leonardo Targa, Dr John Wynn-Jones (chair WWPRP), Prof Amanda Howe (WONCA President Elect), and Mrs Anne Chater

Dr John Wynn- Jones, chair of the Working Party wrote the following citation about Bruce's contribution.

The WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice Award for Outstanding Service to Rural Practice is given to working rural family doctors who have made an exceptional contribution to rural health on both a global and local perspective.

This award recognises a clinician’s exemplary service to their rural communities, to their professional colleagues and to the next generation of doctors.

Recipients are champions for those who they work with and role models for those who follow them. The WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice wishes to acknowledge rural family doctors who make a difference.

Bruce Chater is one of these doctors. He is a founder member of the WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice and has contributed actively to every statement, document, and strategy produced over the last 23 years. He has attended every conference and has coordinated the discussions and recommendations at each gathering. It is often the case that it is his presence and his enthusiasm that assures success. One cannot imagine a Working Party Meeting without his presence.

He has also made a massive contribution in his own country and in his home state of Queensland. He remains one of those iconic rural multi-skilled doctors that only Queensland can produce. He was one of the founding fathers of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and subsequently became its president. I do not have the time to list his many roles in Australian Rural Health Care but I do know that he never stops and is still working with the Queensland Government.
He is committed to educating the next generation of rural doctors both as a trainer and as Associate Professor at the University of Queensland.

Despite all these accolades, I know that Bruce is most proud of his role as the local doctor in Theodore where he combines holistic patient centred care with emergency medicine, surgery and obstetrics.

Above everything Bruce is a family man who is proud of his equally outstanding family.

I have known Bruce for nearly 20 years and I can think of no one better to receive this inaugural award.