Dr Draper pictured with Dr Nicole Higgins, RACGP President
Dr Richard Draper is the Principal GP at Medicine & Mind in Forbes, and also now the RACGP GP of the Year. He is a Parkes local with over 29 years experience working in the Central West in both the private and public sector in general practice, emergency medicine, obstetrics and anaesthetics.
Dr Draper had no idea he had even been nominated at the State level when he received a call from the RACGP, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, to inform him that he had taken out the top award for NSW/ACT (combined) GP of the Year. It was that award that placed him in the running for the National GP of the Year award. Dr Draper said when he heard that he had actually won the national award “I was genuinely stunned”.
Dr Draper is passionate about improving access for patients to quality mental health services in rural areas and has implemented a unique model of care at Forbes Medicine & Mind that sees clinicians working collaboratively with many providers to improve the health and wellbeing of patients.
As GP of the Year, Dr Draper hopes to use his platform over the next 12 months to highlight the needs for more support from Government for General Practitioners to be able to continue to provide such essential services, especially in rural communities and in the wake of natural disasters such as the recent flooding that affected the Forbes community