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| Dr Marion Broderick, general practitioner for the Aran Islands, was conferred yesterday with the Honorary Degree of Master of Health Sciences at NUI Galway |
By currach, lifeboat and helicopter, Aran island doctor Marion Broderick has saved as many lives at sea as on land over the past 32 years.
The general practitioner’s “solo” role as “first port in the storm” and advocate for her community was recognised yesterday by NUI Galway (NUIG), which conferred her with a masters degree in health science.
Dr Broderick, who has also served as medical officer to the RNLI lifeboat, epitomises the best definition of “optimal” general practice, Prof Andrew W Murphy said in his citation at the conferring yesterday.
That definition, articulated by world authority Barbara Starfield in the Lancet journal, involves providing “first contact, continuous, comprehensive and co-ordinated care” to people “undifferentiated by gender, disease or organ system”, Prof Murphy said.
“In a world reduced to statements of 140 characters, the concept of simply being there over an extended period of time seems revolutionary,” Prof Murphy said.
“It can also appear that doctors are expected to know more and more, about less and less, making comprehensive care an unrealisable fairytale,” he said, while co-ordination is “generally overlooked and always underestimated”.
Dr Broderick was one of the first in Ireland to use tele-healthcare and “near patient” testing, he said, and she was “intrinsic” to the development on the island of Arás Ronán, a 12-bed nursing home.
Rural practice is universally recognised as being tough, and island practice even tougher, he said, noting that she was unsure last week if she would have locum cover to travel in for the conferring.
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