Altona North doctor Mukesh Haikerwal, whose service to medicine was acknowledged on Australia Day with the country’s highest civilian honour, says without the community he is nothing.
The former World Medical Association chairman and Australian Medical Association president has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Dr Haikerwal, who in 2008 was near-fatally beaten while walking in his home suburb of Williamstown, said the experience helped him shape the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission draft report – work he is particularly proud of.
He and wife Dr Karyn Alexander – who had stumbled across him and saved his life after he was assaulted and robbed – have worked with “the wonderful people of Altona North” since opening their own medical centre in 1991.
“First and foremost, I am a GP, a local family doctor who serves his local community – this defines me,” Dr Haikerwal said.
“It is a privilege to have as a basis, my foundation, the hard working people, the salt of the earth, the everyday folk who have come from every corner of the globe to live and work in our proudly diverse and multicultural region. They give so much to this great country.”
The Indian-born, UK educated and trained doctor said receiving such an honour was only made possible with support from those around him.
“I would have achieved little without my chariots of fire – my professional colleagues from within medicine and from disciplines aligned to health, health care, welfare and service planning and delivery,” Dr Haikerwal said.
Williamstown’s Dr Roger Mee, who in 1988 performed the first paediatric heart transplant in Australia, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medicine as a heart surgeon.
