Top award for Moerewa GP Graeme Fenton

Moerewa GP Graeme Fenton has been awarded one of his profession's top honours, the Eric Elder Memorial Medal. Photo / File

A Northland GP described by his peers as ''the ultimate family doctor'' has received one of the medical profession's top honours.

Graeme Fenton, of Moerewa Medical Services, was awarded the Eric Elder Medal at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners conference in Auckland on July 27-29. The medal is awarded to just one person a year, usually a rural GP.

College president Tim Malloy, of Wellsford Medical Centre, said Fenton had cared for the Moerewa community since 1967 and was ''the ultimate family doctor, an oracle of health politics, a visionary of rural care''.

''He has never forgotten the importance of the patient and their whānau. He is a true generalist, using his skills to deliver babies or suture wounds, be it farmer, hunter or pet,'' Malloy said.

Bay of Islands GP Chris Reid, chairman of the college's Northland faculty, said he couldn't think of a more deserving recipient.

''He started practising medicine in Moerewa before I was born. He's the definition of a family doctor, it's in his DNA.''

Reid said he was always struck by the immense respect and loyalty generations of Moerewa patients had for Fenton.

''He's a good bloke. He's just quietly got on with it.''

A typically humble Fenton said the award had caught him by surprise.

''It was a bit unexpected, I've just been doing my job. It's been a pleasure working in Moerewa for 50 years.''

Three other Northland doctors were honoured at the conference.

Stephen Main, a GP at Hokianga Health in Rawene, and Andrew Miller, a GP at Bush Rd Medical Centre in Kamo and the chairman of Manaia PHO, were named Distinguished Fellows, while Lawrie Herd was awarded a Community Services Medal for his work over many years to set up a skin cancer clinic at Dargaville Medical Centre.

The Eric Elder Medal is named after a GP who worked in Tuatapere, Southland, for close to 60 years and is regarded as the grandfather of vocational training for general practice in New Zealand.

It isn't the first time Fenton's service has been recognised. In 2013 he was the joint winner of the Peter Snow Memorial Award for the nation's top rural health professional.