Robin Steed, a nurse and head of the New Zealand Institute of Rural Health, is the joint winner of this year’s 2013 Peter Snow Memorial Award.
Steed was announced joint winner with Moerewa GP Dr Graeme Fenton of the rural health award at the weekend’s Rural General Practice Network’s annual conference in Rotorua.
Both were nominated under the service category, with their win recognising their “outstanding service to rural general practice and to rural communities for many years, and their endless enthusiasm and drive in nursing and education”.
Steed trained as a nurse in Northland, where she first became interested in rural health and then moved to Health Waikato, with responsibility for community-based services and rural hospitals. She later became CEO of the Hamilton-based NZIRH and is described as “working tirelessly” to develop the institute and to be “creative and innovative” in working to support rural communities and rural health professionals.
Fenton established Moerewa Medical Services in Northland in 1967 and was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in September 2011. He has served as deputy chair of the Te Tai Tokerau PHO board since 2003 and has worked hard over the decades to improve access to healthcare for rural communities.
