Meet a member - Dr Lisa Fraser

Her journey into medicine began like so many – confused and uncertain. Driven by a sense of curiosity and an open mind, she found herself studying science, paving the way for her future career as a GP.

“Medicine was never something I thought I would go into, so I did an honours year after my science degree to buy myself some thinking time,” Dr Fraser said.

“From there it was either research or medicine, and the people that were doing medicine seemed to have an interesting life, so I decided to apply.”

During her early years of study, Dr Fraser was awarded an AMA Queensland Foundation Medical Student Scholarship which supported her to complete rural placements – experiences that influenced her later decision to become a rural GP.

“I joined AMA Queensland as a student as it looked like real people doing interesting things and making a difference,” she said.

“The scholarship came during my first or second year of medical school. I applied because I needed the financial support and I didn't have any medical people in my family.”

Once she had a taste of rural medicine, returning to Toowoomba for training was easy.

“On the advice of my peers I chose Toowoomba Rural Clinical School for a good start in my training with practical skills and hands-on experiences. This was where I met many mentors who substantially shaped my career,” she said.

“I completed extended registrar placements in Toowoomba, Ipswich and tertiary hospitals in Brisbane, a few years on the RACP training program and six months of anatomical pathology before feeling confident to choose general practice.”

During her GP training Dr Fraser worked across McDowall, Inala and Springfield and held positions as the registrar liaison officer and a medical education registrar with General Practice Training Queensland.

A few years after completing her fellowship she felt a need to return to rural medicine and spent a year in Ingham before deciding to choose rural practice ownership.

“In 2018 my family and I took a sea change to Gordonvale, Far North Queensland, to see whether it was going to work or not,” she said.

Now nearly five years into ownership, Dr Fraser is certain it’s where she will be for the remainder of her career.

“It has been a life-changing experience – both exhilarating and deeply challenging, and I am very proud of our work,” she said.

“Deciding to buy a practice was massive and still is massive in the sense that there are days where we are not sure if it was the right one. But when we look at what we've done, we know it was the right choice.

“Sometimes the work is not that visible because of what’s happening in the healthcare system, but there's materially a lot of things that we've improved for the community and the business.

“We offer extended scope for nurses, palliative care, home visits, nursing home care, under 65s residential care support, corporate vaccination visits, community education and more”

As the only medical service in her town of 10,000 people, Dr Fraser is proud to offer a holistic range of services to best support her community.

“Something I never thought I'd be able to do is skin surgery – I hate blood, I hate procedures. But the skin cancer here is at crisis levels, so you just have to, or else people die. So I picked a course, found some mentors and just went and did it,” she said.

“The Gordonvale community also includes significant low-income families and 6 per cent of our population identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

“So, something we consciously do is talk about culture in the practice to try and bring First Nations culture forward.”

On top of her busy clinical schedule Dr Fraser is involved in many leadership and community organisations as avenues to effect positive change.

She is Chair of the North Queensland Public Health Network Clinical Council, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce and a rural representative for RACGP and AMA Queensland. She is also the Treasurer for General Practice Medical Education Incorporated where she assists in organising its annual conference.

As the General Practice Representative on AMA Queensland Council, she aims to bring the perspective of rural private practice and generalism to advocacy.

“I am passionate about improving the quality of GP training and the lived experience of GPs working in our current system through policy improvements,” she said.

“I want the big issues to be heard, to make sure that GPs don't lose some core aspects of what we do.

“I think an important narrative for the future of medicine, the future of workforce and productivity, is how do we look after our people? How do we nurture our workforce from beginning to end? So, I want people to know what being a GP is like – both the good and the bad.”

Recognising Dr Fraser’s consistent dedication to education, the AMA Queensland Foundation recently awarded her a GPTQ Bursary to support her further training in reproductive and sexual health.

“My goal is to offer the best care to my community by meeting their specific healthcare needs, avoiding the need for referral where possible and managing issues through prevention and education,” she said.

“Contraception and women's health is a huge area of need here.

“I hope that improving my skills in this area can reduce unplanned pregnancy and improve antenatal and postnatal care and the uptake of sexual health testing in my community.”