Pātiki and Waharua Kōpito patterns
Rotorua Hospital’s Dr Georgia Williams has been named New Zealand’s Doctor of the Year.
She is the third winner to hail from the secondary hospital in five years.
The award is governed by the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC), which presents awards to doctors across nine jurisdictions (New Zealand plus each state and territory of Australia).
Georgia is a University of Otago graduate and grew up in Rotorua.
Since 2008 this award has been presented annually by CPMEC to junior doctors across Australia and New Zealand in recognition of those who have made significant contributions to improving prevocational medical education and training.
Georgia’s nomination highlighted her leadership in education, quality improvement, and her deep commitment to improving the training experience for her peers - particularly in the context of regional and rural practice.
She says she learned of her win while on night shift.
“I was very shocked and quite shy about it, but I’ve come to be more excited and proud of Rotorua as a hospital. We work as a team and this serves as recognition of that.
“It’s a win for the hospital, it’s for Rotorua, not just any one person. I love working here. It’s a great size and I believe we operate as a whānau. Everyone’s working together for the best of our community.
“There’s a shared goal that’s external to ourselves.”
Georgia has taken an active role in supporting the development of fellow junior doctors. She created and delivered a suite of structured, practical teaching sessions specifically for PGY1 colleagues, including: House Officer Orientation: Approach to Long Days, House Officer Tips and Tricks, and PGY1 Approach to Night Shifts.
She’s also contributed opportunistic teaching for 4th-year medical students on general surgery attachments, helping them better understand common surgical presentations and clinical reasoning in real-world settings.
As the intern representative on the ACE Matching Board, she has represented the perspectives and needs of early-career doctors in workforce allocation processes, contributing meaningfully to broader structural improvements.
She has also led and participated in several impactful systems improvement and research projects. A standout example is her quality improvement project on post-operative medication charting for elective surgical patients.
Dr Williams developed a new ward admission protocol to standardise post-op medication reconciliation and communication between surgical, anaesthetic, and ward teams. Her work has already led to clearer practices and increased awareness around perioperative medication safety.
She has also spearheaded the implementation of a weekend handover improvement initiative within the general medicine team, introducing a new online handover list for RMOs combined with a formal in-person handover on Friday afternoons.
This project has already improved the consistency and safety of weekend cover, particularly valuable in smaller hospitals with limited staffing.
“That came about from a mid-night shift conversation with a registrar. We built on other hospital models to have a streamlined formal handover. It’s a safe knowledge transfer for patients as well as knowledge of what your weekend might look like.
“We’ve moved it online. We used to have 18 pieces of paper and it was easy to lose one and then lose sight of five patients. Having it online means it’s traceable and auditable, there’s a visual trail.”
Georgia also led a CT coronary angiography (CTCA) audit and database covering all patients who have undergone CTCA in the Lakes district. This research examines patient risk profiles, outcomes, and representations, aiming to benchmark local practice against national data and inform future service planning.
“What I find quite cool about medicine is how diverse the spread of experiences you’ve got. It’s how you work as a team, with other MDT but also junior to senior within a medicine team.
“There are opportunities to teach and learn from others. The most powerful words who can say are ‘I don’t know, let’s figure it out’.
“I like working with people, but also problem solving. You can do that in many jobs but I like doing it in medicine.”
Georgia thinks Rotorua’s secret to producing three Doctors of the Year since 2021 is the attraction of the location itself.
“It seems to attract like-minded people. People who want to work hard but also be outside in the forest or on the lakes.
“Rotorua is a great place to be a junior doctor. It’s supportive and I truly believe it’s like a whānau.”
Georgia is staying on at Rotorua Hospital and joining the general medicine vocational training programme.
In 2024 the award was presented to Dr Fatima Hakak and in 2021 to Dr Tawa Hunter.
Dr Georgia Williams