ACRRM 2020 Distinguished Service Award presented to Proserpine’s Dr Deborah Simmons

Dr Deborah Simmons from Proserpine, Queensland, has been presented with an Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) 2020 Distinguished Service Award for her significant contribution to rural and remote medicine and general service to the community. 

Dr Simmons' notable contribution spans from developing ACRRM’s Rural Anaesthetic Crisis Management course to her recent response efforts at the Moranbah mine.

Dr Simmons has extensively contributed to the delivery and implementation of ACRRM’s courses including Rural Emergency Skills Training (REST), Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Rural Anaesthetic Crisis Management (RACM), the former of which she developed specifically for ACRRM. Additionally, Dr Simmons is a Primary StAMPS examiner and has presented a keynote speech at Rural Medicine Australia in 2016. 

She is also recognised for the critical role she played in managing patients who suffered severe burns from a gas blast at Grosvenor Coal Mine in Moranbah earlier this year. Dr Simmons was training staff at the local hospital when she was called to lead the hospital response.  

“I feel so honoured that I have been awarded the Distinguished Service Award,” Dr Simmons says.

“I understand I was nominated for this award by my colleges and I am humbled.”

Award nominator Dr Shaun Grimes explains that Dr Simmons is “always looking for practical ways to achieve patient care using what’s on hand in a rural low resource environment”.

“She is a gold standard role model for all, and importantly for all junior clinicians and students looking to a rural career in medicine,” he says. 

It was through Locum work in Rockhampton and training ACRRM registrars in anesthesia that Dr Simmons was first introduced to the College. In order to remain where she was working at the time, Dr Simmons was required to gain a second fellowship and decided to pursue Rural Generalism on ACRRM’s Independent Pathway. 

“The breadth of medicine I get to perform now is amazing being a rural generalist,” says Dr Simmons who has been a Rural Generalist in Proserpine for almost seven years. 

Previously, Dr Simmons was a senior consultant anaesthetist at Flinders Medical Centre, specialising in liver transplantation, high risk obstetrics and bariatric surgery.