Meet a member – Drs Rob Hodge and Zelle Hodge AM

The Rob and Zelle Hodge story begins in the early 1970s at the University of Queensland where they met and bonded over their passion for medicine.

In 1973, soon after meeting and starting to date, they graduated from medical school.  Rob ventured to Townsville and Zelle stayed at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

“It was really only in our final year of university that we got to know each other,” Zelle said.

“By the time that happened, I'd applied to do my first year in Brisbane and Rob went to Townsville, and in those days, there was no technology.

“At the Townsville Hospital they used to have an old-fashioned switchboard and one of the telephonists there used to take pity on us. You could only speak for three minutes because it was so expensive, and then you had to get an extension, so she used to just put us through.”

In 1975, they made two grand life decisions – to get married and to join the AMA.

After medical school and getting married, the whirlwind only intensified for the doctor duo.

Rob spent the next decade studying both nationally and internationally to become an ENT and Head and Neck Surgeon – the specialty he practised in Brisbane for 37 years.

Zelle moved to Townsville for further study and was part of the second trainee intake for the College of General Practice’s original Family Medicine Program.

Having both left Townsville, Zelle joined Rob in his travels to Perth and London before they returned to work in Australia in the early 1980s.

“When we went to London for Rob to do training, I worked in the NHS. Then we came back to Australia and I started working part-time in general practice,” she said.

“The practice that I am in, Brookside Family Clinic, has had various iterations of staff since I joined, and I am the last of those original doctors left.

“So I'm telling everyone this is my last year, and once you decide, you decide.”

Rob and Zelle had joined AMA Queensland in 1975. Once they returned to Australia and found their feet career-wise, they quickly became actively involved in medical politics and advocacy work.

In 1989, Zelle had what she called her first “run-in”. This was regarding RACGP negotiations with the federal government to bring in vocational registrations that required doctors to have a fellowship to be a ‘proper GP’.

“There was a lot of controversy around it, particularly from a women's viewpoint, because a common opinion at the time was that part-time GPs were not real GPs,” she said.

“I had a lot of issues with this, especially as women were often the ones to combine part-time work and family commitments, so I wrote a letter to the RACGP that they threatened to sue me on.

“I was on very good terms with those people at the time, but often people have different viewpoints. We still see them as friends.”

Rather than taking this run-in as a loss, Zelle and Rob only became more motivated to advocate for a better healthcare system for doctors and patients.

That same year Rob joined the AMA Queensland Visiting Medical Officers’ Committee which he then Chaired. Over the next 14 years, he was on 11 other state AMA committees, held 14 positions with state and federal AMA and began his first leadership role as AMA Queensland Honorary Secretary in 1990.

He was later elected to Chair of Council which he held for a year before being elected as President.

At the same time, Zelle became a representative of many committees and held her own fair share of leadership positions within the AMA.

Many of the big-ticket health issues at the time of Rob’s election in 1994 are still around today, most notably, workforce shortages and the maldistribution of doctors across the state.

“Currently, there is no difference in remuneration for doctors according to the Medicare Schedule Benefit (between metro and rural areas),” he wrote in his first AMAQ Quarterly (now Doctor Q) column as President.

“BHP is able to attract people to work in distant inhospitable places by paying them appropriately. If Governments were “fair dinkum” about attracting doctors to work in unpopular areas, they should do no less.”

The only notable change that came to mind since his presidency was an assumption regarding the role itself.

“During my time presidency terms were only for a year because after any longer you were exhausted,” he said.

“I was an ENT Surgeon in Brisbane at the time but gave up most public and private practice during my presidency as it was a very AMA-committed type of year.”

Zelle entered her presidency with clear goals and a plan of attack, telling Doctor Q in May 2006:

“If you're going to stand as president, then you need to do it for the profession. I want to succeed in listening to what our members are saying and then making those voices heard.”

Like Rob, Zelle draws many comparisons between the medical issues of today and those during her presidency. 

“My presidency was nearly 20 years ago, but if you were to ask me – what were the issues back then? – I would say that they're always the same in medicine,” she said, citing registrars experiencing unsafe working hours and inadequate training pathways as examples.

Creating a legacy for themselves was never the goal, instead, the pair have dedicated their career outside of their clinical work to making a difference.

“No matter what the tide wipes away, we must ensure that what is left is good doctors, trained well, leading a team focused on patient well-being,” Zelle said.

Echoing this sentiment, Rob said that “it wasn't as though I entered it with any need to create some sort of legacy or anything. It was basically just for membership type thing.”

While Drs Rob and Zelle Hodge never intended to create a legacy for themselves, they are a prime example of what it means to be an AMA Queensland leader.

We are grateful for their advocacy efforts which helped pave the way for other leaders to come.

CV

AMA Queensland celebrated its 130th anniversary on 30 May 2024. The inaugural AGM of the Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association was held on 30 May 1894. The Australian branches of the BMA formed the Australian Medical Association in 1962.