Christchurch GP Dr Clare Healy has been awarded Distinguished Fellowship of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners for her 30-year career working with patients who have experienced physical or sexual abuse.
Dr Healy is a general practitioner at Halswell Health, and Clinical Director of the Cambridge Clinic in Christchurch, which provides services for patients who have experienced physical or sexual abuse.
She has been involved in sexual assault medical care for over 30 years and is regarded as New Zealand’s foremost GP expert in this field. She regularly works alongside Police, lawyers, academics, judges and other non-government organisations to share her knowledge and assist these groups to work more effectively with patients of these types of assault.
College President Dr Samantha Murton says, “Dr Healy’s willingness to share her knowledge in this particularly sensitive area of medical care, has without a doubt benefitted many of her colleagues in the health workforce, including registrars on the GP training programme.”
In addition to training as a specialist general practitioner, Dr Healy completed a Master of Forensic Science over five years and has been a contributing author and clinical editor for sector resources for over 20 years. She also contributed to the Ministry of Health’s Family Violence Assessment and Intervention Guidelines.
Distinguished Fellowship is awarded to Fellows of the College who have made sustained contributions to general practice, medicine, or the health and wellbeing of the community.
This year, six GPs received Distinguished Fellowship at the College’s conference in Wellington.