APROF MARILYN McMURCHIE

Dr Marilyn McMurchie is a GP and a Director of East Sydney Doctors.

 

Marilyn started general practice work in Darlinghurst just when Kinsela’s changed from being a funeral parlour to an entertainment venue. The HIV pandemic came to notice at about the same time. Providing care for those affected by HIV became a major part of her work and from 1991 to 1993, she was President of the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine. As a member of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Committee on HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections, that commitment continued until 2013; currently she represents the NSW Faculty of the RACGP on the committee overseeing the implementation of the NSW Ministry of Health’s strategy to eliminate HIV infection. In the 1990s she received a World AIDS Day award and a Gavemer Foundation award then in 2006 was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services in HIV care and education.

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As a Public Health Physician, she was a member of the Joint Public Health Advisory Committee of the General Practice Partnership Advisory Council and was the RACGP National Adviser to the National Health and Medical Research Council’s National Breast Cancer Centre. She has written for and spoken to medical and other groups on general practice, breast disorders, sexually transmitted infections, and other topics.

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A past worker at Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre, she is a feminist and has worked at Jarrah House (a women’s drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre) and Women’s Place (a support and accommodation service for women at risk of homelessness). She spent four years at the Sydney Square Diagnostic Breast Clinic where she pioneered fine needle aspiration of breast lesions. She was part of the development of the RACGP‘s Course of Advanced Training in Women’s Heath and the subsequent Women and Violence project. From 1998-2001 she was President of the Australian Federation of Medical Women and convened the 25th conference of Medical Women’s International Association. She was inaugural convener of the Women in Family Medicine Working Group for the Global GP organisation WONCA. The Australian Medical Association awarded her their Women’s Health Award in 2003.

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After five years as a Senior Research Fellow, she became an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Discipline of General Practice at the University of Sydney. She examines foreign medical graduates for the Australian Medical Council.

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For years now she has spent time every year doing locum work in rural and remote Australia.

Since 2007 she has been a volunteer member of TheMHS Conference, an educational organisation committed to improving the quality of mental health services in Australia and New Zealand and is accredited to St Vincent’s Private Hospital’s young adult mental heath unit. In 2011 she graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Outside of work, she has a collection of Moreton Bay fig bonsais which started life on The Wall and loves her Apple IT.