Tim Senior

Tim Senior is passionate about ensuring that everyone has access to high quality medical care in their community. He sees at first hand that those people who can benefit the most from good general practice care are also those least able to access it, often simply because they can’t afford it.

Tim has worked as a GP at Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation, the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in Campbelltown, South-West Sydney for the last 18 years. Prior to this he has worked in Central Australia, the Torres Strait and the UK, each time in low-income communities.

He is experienced in working with people of all ages with a complex mix of physical and mental health problems, often in challenging social circumstances, which has led to him advocating and working to ensure that health, social and environmental policies don’t contribute to poor health.

To do this, Tim combines his clinical work with work as the Medical Advisor for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, and has been heavily involved in the development of guidelines and resources for all GPs working with First Nations Australians. He established two specific interest groups within the RACGP, one on poverty, and one on environmental impacts in general practice, and is recognised among the profession for his writing, teaching and advocacy on these issues. He is a Contributing Editor with Croakey Health Media, and writes on issues relating to general practice and health care in communities with reduced access. All of his non-clinical work is aimed at improving primary health care for those who can least afford it, and he is looking forward to his Churchill Fellowship enabling more GPs to be supported to do this work, and enhance care for people who need it most.