Elsie Lange
(Precede) Three locals have been recognised for their incredible service to their local Sunbury and Macedon Ranges communities and fields in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list as Elsie Lange reports.
Associate professor and Sunbury resident Christopher Hogan said it was “just lovely” to find out he’d been awarded a medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to medicine on Monday.
“It’s a rare honour, it’s even rarer for it to be awarded for medicine,” he said.
“Usually it’s for contribution to our specific medical discipline, like general practice or surgery … this is for contributions within and beyond my initial discipline.”
The annual awards recognise outstanding and inspirational Australians, with 428 people made officers of the Order of Australia this year.
Associate professor Hogan started his career in Sunbury in 1979 as the equivalent of a general and rural proceduralist, working in his practice, in the hospital delivering babies, and attending in emergency.
In 1980, he started volunteering with Sunbury State Emergency Services, where he was for 13 years, attending over 100 road incidents.
He embedded himself at the University of Melbourne (UoM), and was an inaugural member of the Victorian Research Network at UoM’s department of general practice, where he was then awarded Honorary Clinical Associate Professorship in 2010.
Associate Professor Hogan has dedicated his life to the “ongoing continual improvement of the quality of services delivered by GPs”.
His list of achievements is extensive, from his work with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, to work with the Victorian Department of Human Services, to his community engagement as a medical co-ordinator for the Victorian State Disaster Plan and the Sunbury Chamber of Commerce.
“I would like to thank my friends, families and colleagues, for all the love and support I have received over the years and all the colleagues in all the teams I have worked,” he said.
“Most especially I thank my patients who taught me so much, and let me be a part of their lives.”
