Doctor’s 50 years of rural service recognised

Doctor John Rosser Davies’ five decades of service to his community will be recognised by an award from Rural Health West.

The Manjimup doctor arrived in the South West town in 1978 as a temporary locum and has been there ever since.

Dr Davies will this month receive a WA Rural Health Long Service Award.

His career, which began in the United Kingdom in 1972, spans obstetrics, anaesthetics, surgery, emergency medicine and aged care and has supported patients through all stages of life.

Relocating to Australia in January 1978, he filled locum positions in Wyndham, Exmouth, Port Hedland, Esperance, Adelaide, Sydney, Caloundra, Mooloolaba and Longreach before arriving in Manjimup.

"The work was mainly in the hospital, the mandatory service provision needing archetypal  GP skills such as obstetrics, caesarean section, anaesthetics, appendicectomy, emergency work and anything else one could do safely," Dr Davies said.

"The job utilised all my medical knowledge and quickly needed me to learn new skills," he said.

As Manjimup’s only obstetrician for the past 19 years, he has delivered more than 1000 babies, often later caring for those same children as adults and he is known for having pioneered home-based palliative care in the area long before it became widely practiced in Australia.

According to Rural Health West Dr Davies is the only rural doctor in Western Australia to have provided surgical, anaesthetic and obstetric services concurrently.

He has mentored more than 80 medical students over his career and is a long-standing faculty member and co-convenor at the University of Western Australia’s Clinical Training and Evaluation Centre.

Professor Catherine Elliott, CEO of Rural Health West said it was not just his patients, but many new doctors who Dr Davies had had an impact on.

Dr Davies is still practicing and currently provides obstetric care to the Manjimup community as well as practicing as a surgeon and anaesthetist.

His care has extended beyond hospital walls having been associated with the Asthma Foundation and many locals would also know him from providing road safety education to them as high school students and delivering antenatal and first-aid education in the community.

Professor Elliott said Rural Health Awards highlighted not only years of service but also the "deep community connections and impact" recipients have had in improving health outcomes across regional and remote WA.