Get to know your college: Dr Gregory McAnulty

 

What is your role and what does your work focus on? 

I have been the Medical Director of the Northern Territory Regional Training Hub for two months now. The Training Hub aims to address the imbalance in the Australian medical workforce by assisting its development in the Northern Territory. Our focus is broad: from medical students through to pre-vocational graduates, vocational trainees extending all to way to rural generalist GPs and medical specialists. 

Where did you work before joining CMPH?  

I have been an intensive care specialist for 25 years, the last five and a half of them in Alice Springs. Although I graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney, I trained and worked in the specialties of Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in the UK and was a consultant at St George’s in London from 1997 until 2016. 

What journey brought you to this point in your career? 

I have had the great fortune to have been able to work in clinical medicine for forty years. I realise that I owe so much to those who have shared with me their knowledge and experience. I am still learning, especially in this new job. I hope I can, as well, contribute a little to the learning of others.  

My first proper encounter with the Central Australia was in 1981 when I spent some time in Kintore, Papunya and Utopia as well as Alice Springs at the end of my medical degree. I was humbled and inspired by the resilience and generosity of the people whose land I was privileged to be able to stay on. 

Central Australia remains under your skin and, after a career which included occasional stints working with Médecins sans Frontières (and four years as the UK section president), I felt the time was right to come back.  

What is something you love most about your work? 

I get to live and work in one of the most beautiful places in the world while having the opportunity to meet extraordinary people. 

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? 

There is little in the world that you have any influence on but if an opportunity arises where you might be able to make a difference, grab the opportunity. Doing something with good intentions is probably better than doing nothing. 

How do you like to relax or spend your spare time? 

Walking in the ranges in Central Australia. It is an enchanting and awe-inspiring country. 

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Flinders NT Get to know CMPH

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