Sue Page

Dr. Sue Page AM is the past President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia and current

Board member of Future Health Leaders.

Page is also on the board of the North Coast GP Training, and RACGP Rural.

Now an Australian Citizen, Dr Page was born in Washington DC in 1960.

She is the third child of Colonel David Page, Chief of Publicity and Psychological Warfare for the US First Army and later deputy chief administrator of the US Veterans Administration, and Diana Hodgkinson Page, one of the three first Australian women trained as Diplomatic Staff Cadets and later posted to New York as Vice Consul.

Colonel Page was awarded the Croix De Guerre, US Legion of Merit and Bronze Star with V for Valour.

In 1987 she married classmate Dr Chris Mitchell, the 2009–2010 President of the Royal Australian College of General Practice.

They live on a farm in northern NSW with their three children, Robert Mitchell, Sara Mitchell, and Kate Mitchell.

Amongst achievements are listed contribution to resolving the 2003 Medical Indemnity crisis in Australia, the establishment of a dedicated training program for Procedural General Practice, and negotiating Australian Medicare Item Numbers for Nurses working within General Practices for procedures such as Pap smears and for Allied Health Professionals caring for patients with chronic and complex disease.

She continues to promote collaborative working arrangements in Primary Health Care, and to inspire the next generation of health workforce through a variety of speaking engagements.

Page attended the University of Newcastle where she later returned as the 2005 David Maddison Orator.

At the 2007 federal election, Page was the endorsed National Party candidate for the electorate of Richmond in northern New South Wales where she took a strong stance on environmental issues including nuclear power.

She lost to incumbent Labor MP Justine Elliot.

Identified as one of the top ten people in Australia influencing General Practice, Dr Page was recognised in the Australian Honours as a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 25 January 2008.

The award is recognition for outstanding achievement and service.

Dr Page received her award for service to medicine and to the community through commitment to improving access to health and medical services in rural and remote areas, and through professional, educational and advisory roles.

Page has been instrumental in bringing cross-sector organisations together to work to common goals.

Until 2010 she was the inaugural Director of the North Coast Medical Education Collaboration, a venture linking the University of Sydney, the University of Western Sydney and the University of Wollongong which established year-long training for medical students in rural areas and later combined with the UCRH.

As Clinical Lead for Education for the RACGP, Dr Page headed a review of national curriculum and the move toward outcomes based learning with statements able to be uploaded onto smart phones.

She assisted in the creation of the College's new Fellowship of Advanced Rural General Practice, the FARGP, which includes processes for Recognition of Prior Learning for rural GPs in established practice.

She has championed the uptake of Telehealth in Australian community based practice with roles in the Government Department of Health and Ageing Telehealth Advisory Group, conference speaking engagements and contribution to RACGP Telehealth resources including a new Active Learning Module.

Page previously held the position of inaugural Chair of the North Coast Area Health Care Advisory Council within the NSW Department of Health, New South Wales Department of Health and has been a board member of the Northern NSW Local Health District, from 2011 to 2016.

She is a rural GP VMO at Ballina District Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital in Lismore.

A Fellow of, and Supervisor for, both RACGP and ACRRM, she has post graduate training in the Early Management of Severe Trauma, a Diploma in Shared Care Psychiatry (Eating Disorders) and a Diploma in Obstetrics through the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Her practice includes primary health care within an Aboriginal community, and used to involve obstetrics at Ballina Hospital until the unit was closed due to workforce shortages.