The President's travels

From the Editor: the president's travels

The Wonca president, Richard Roberts, recently sent me his travel schedule. It might be some peoples' dream to spend a lot of time travelling the world and experiencing different cultures, but frankly, having received several of these travel schedules over the past year, I suspect our president's dream might be to have a quiet holiday with his wife and family away from the mobile phone. Not only does he travel world visiting Wonca's member organisations, he also seems in high demand in his own country.I have had many comments from readers enjoying Rich Roberts' reflections on what he has seen in other countries. Many enjoy his anecdotes of visits to the surgeries of ordinary GPs/family physicians, meetings with medical students and residents, and of course his analyses of a variety of health systems. This issue provides another fine example with Rich's recent visit to Chile providing the source of his reflections.

Rich Roberts visited my own country in October, to attend the annual conference of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). As I had not been able to attend myself, I had almost forgotten Rich’s visit when several weeks later, my friend and colleague, Marjorie, was still reflecting on Rich's plenary. He delivered the Stuart Patterson lecture at the opening ceremony: his lecture was titled We need better science and new technologies: we need family medicine. For those who have never been lucky enough to hear our Wonca president speak, there is a link provided to an audio recording on the RACGP site: www.gp11.com.au

The PowerPoint presentation that goes with the lecture is included in the selection available on: http://www.gp11.com.au/powerpoints.asp

It was pleasing to see my college acknowledge Rich Roberts with the award of Honorary Fellowship. Of course, being Rich Roberts, he did not just make a lecture and receive an award; he took his usual interest in the day-to-day life of GPs in my country and found time to visit the practice of Dr Chris Hughes of Bridgewater, Tasmania.

Prof Richard Roberts receives Honorary Fellowship from president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Prof Claire Jackson

Prof Roberts visits the Tasmanian practice of Dr Chris Hughes.