Doctors abound at Rotary Otorohanga's Charity Lunch
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A gathering of 50 members and guests were present to enjoy a great meal provided by our Rotary members ably coordinated by Rotarian Dianne Murphy.Amongst the guests were three doctors from the Otorohanga Medical Centre team, Dr. Jo Ann Francisco, Dr. Bhanu Sivakumar and Dr. Russ Fernandez and from the Otorohanga Physio. Clinic, physiotherapist Kara Thomas.
Representing our Community were: His Worship the Mayor Max Baxter; Kawhia Community Board Chairman Kit Jefferies; Deputy Mayor and Kawhia/Tihiroa Ward member Deborah Pilkington; Tihiroa/Kawhia Ward member Annette Williams together with Executive Assistant David Dowd and Community Events Coordinator Leigh Peglar. Rotary Assistant District Governor Kevin Forgeson. Four members from Kihikihi Rotary joined our group of Rotarians and partners.
The Guests of Honour were Dr John Burton and his wife Sue Burton. John was our Guest Speaker and lived up to the extensive review published in last week’s Pink-Un. In his address ,Dr. John concentrated mainly on the work he and Sue did in Benin West Africa – working in a small general hospital servicing the health needs of more than one million patients with only two other doctors.
When we think that in the Otorohanga District we probably have much better than a 1:1000 ratio of doctors to citizens – instead of 1:300000 in Benin !. Additionally, we have helicopter and road ambulance services and the biggest public hospital, on one site, in the Southern Hemisphere within a 30-minute ambulance trip.
It was obvious that Sue Burton played a vital role in the medical and humanitarian work that her husband carried out – and it even seems that her early life on a farm also brought some veterinary skills that were able to be transferred for use in obstetrics and gynaecology emergencies at Dr John’s hospital.