Dr Anne Knight OAM has the distinction of being the Mid Coast's one and only person to be named on the Australia Day 2024 Honours list.
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"I obviously feel very honoured, but sort of a bit overwhelmed as well. It's a nice surprise!" Dr Knight said.
Dr Knight was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to medicine through a range of roles".
And reading her citation, she has indeed served (and continues to serve) a large range of roles, through practising medicine as a physician, educating medical students, and community and governance roles.
Dr Knight is currently a senior specialist physician at Manning Base Hospital, has been the co-director of general medicine since 2020, and a consultant physician, general and respiratory, in Taree since 1992.
Other positions at the hospital include chair of the General Clinical Training Committee for Junior Medical Officers since 2004 and 1992-1996, and member of the Quality Use of Medicines Committee since 2008 and chair in 2023. Dr Knight was also the director of Clinical Training from 1992 to 1998.
Along with her duties at the hospital, Dr Knight also spends nearly half her time as a senior lecturer in medicine with University of Newcastle, teaching the fourth year medical students at the Rural Clinical School in Taree. Dr Knight was Clinical Dean of the campus in 2014-2015.
"A lot of my work now is education and training, hopefully, the new generation of rural doctors. We get a few of them to come back, but as long as they all get excellent teaching while they're here, that's the main thing," Dr Knight said.
Devoted physician
Other professional positions held in the past have been:
- Chair, Editorial Executive Committee, Australian Prescriber, 2014-2017 and member, 2008-2017;
- Member, Workforce and Allocation Committee, Post-graduate Medical Council of NSW, 1998-2004; and
- Member, Steering Committee for the Development of Drug Use Indicators, Australian Hospitals, 1997-1998.
Dr Knight has been a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians since 1990 and is still active, being a member of the Gender Equity in Medicine Working Group since 2020, and a professional development adviser in adult medicine for basic trainees since 2017. She was also a member of the Advanced Training Committee in general and acute care medicine from 2020-2022, as well as a member of the Adult Medicine Division Council from 2020-2022.
Joy in relationships
Dr Knight's biggest career highlight, outside of the local area she says, is holding the presidency of the Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand from 2020 to 2022.
"It was a pretty big deal. And it was a great privilege to be given that responsibility by the society, so I look back on that as one of the high points in my career," she said.
However, at a grass roots level it is the relationships with her patients that Dr Knight counts precious. She has been working as a physician in Taree for 32 years, both at the hospital and privately, in practice with Dr Peter Broad OAM.
"The basis of being a doctor is your relationship with patients and being able to hopefully make sure that the patient is better off for having encountered you. So being able to have those relationships with patients or those therapeutic relationships with patients has been very special," Dr Knight said.
"I just stopped seeing patients a few months ago because I was worn out really. I'm trying to wind down towards retirement, but I still do a lot of community and governance work at the hospital."
Helping the next generation of practitioners
Training and teaching up and coming doctors has always been a special interest for the busy physician.
"It's a great privilege to be a doctor and to have patients put their trust in you. And I think that the profession needs to make sure these standards are upheld and the next generation of practitioners is able to use the trust given to them by their patients wisely, and with integrity.
"I think it's our responsibility to pass on our our knowledge and hopefully wisdom to the next generation. And make sure they can behave professionally and provide a service to the community, and particularly for rural areas.
"Thirty per cent of the Australian population lives outside major metropolitan centres. And they are entitled to receive good medical care, as everyone else (is)," Dr Knight said.
"I'd like to be part of ensuring that."