“Champion” honoured
SHPA President Professor Michael Dooley presents School of Rural Health lecturer Anne Leversha with a certificate of appreciation after she steps down from her role as inaugural Rural Adviser with the organisation.
School of Rural Health lecturer Anne Leversha has been honoured as a ‘champion of rural health’.
Anne has stepped down from her role with the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) as its inaugural National Rural Adviser, a role she has filled for 18 years.
SPHA recently acknowledged Anne’s substantial contribution to rural health at its annual general meeting, presenting her with a certificate of appreciation.
Anne has supported and educated rural practitioners for more than 30 years. She has done this in many roles: as a pharmacist clinician and manager in a rural hospital; as an academic at a rural campus; representing SHPA on Allied Health Professions Australia Rural and Remote, and Rural Pharmacists Australia; chairing SHPA’s Rural Network; and as SHPA’s Rural Adviser.
Anne believed that SHPA’s rural members needed a Rural Adviser to work on their behalf and advocated to SHPA that this role be created. As SHPA’s Rural Adviser, she fostered strong links between rural members and their branch committees by encouraging each branch to have a rural representative.
Anne worked at the Latrobe Regional Hospital in Traralgon until mid-2013, and was the Director of Pharmacy for her last 11 years there. She is a Senior Lecturer the School of Rural Health and the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
SHPA President Professor Michael Dooley paid tribute to Anne at the AGM, presenting her a certificate of appreciation. “Anne is a wonderful role model for any health professional because of her integrity, commitment and tireless efforts to improve patient care,” he said.
Her unwavering commitment to patients in the rural sector, and her conviction that the quality of health care received by patients in rural and remote areas should be equivalent to that received by their metropolitan counterparts.
“All SHPA members, not just those in rural areas, and the patients they care for have benefited greatly from Anne’s contribution and leadership.”
SHPA announced Chris Turner as the new SHPA National Rural Adviser. Chris is the Director of Pharmacy at Echuca Hospital.