OAM for dedicated GP

RETIRED GP Dr Richard Gutch was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to medicine as a general practitioner and through executive roles with various medical organisations.
Starting as a GP in the late 1950s in the poorer, industrial and migrant areas of Clifton Hill and Carlton, Dr Gutch’s work covered health problems from coughs and colds to obstetrics and chronic disease.
In response to the high incidence of industrial trauma in the area, Dr Gutch and his associates established an industrial trauma clinic.
Dr Gutch was a founding director, in 1989, of the National Asthma Campaign, now known as the National Asthma Council.
“The profession was concerned about the high death rate from asthma with about 950 people, some quite young, dying from asthma a year,” he said. “It was very gratifying to see the improvements there.”
The Healesville resident was also chairman of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (Australia) and of the Royal College of General Practitioners Superannuation Fund.
He said the award was an honour, but one which he regarded as being more for the organisations he had worked with.
He said there was also an element of sadness attached to it. His wife, Verna, died last year, just before he received advice that he had been nominated.