Doctor's gift to regional students

Dr Herbert Gibson, MBBS, FRACGP, was a kind and gentle man who devoted his working life to caring for people who were less privileged or marginalised by society. He was particularly concerned about medical treatment for people in rural areas where it is often difficult to access medical and psychiatric help.

Dr Gibson believed that helping talented young people from rural areas become doctors would in turn improve the physical and mental health of rural communities. His substantial donation to his university for this very purpose has allowed Monash University to establish a scholarship in his honour. The Dr Herbert Gibson Rural Health Scholarship aims to assist talented underprivileged students from regional Victoria to study for their MBBS at Monash University.

Dr Gibson’s friend, Mr Ted Underwood said that Dr Gibson’s interest in psychiatry and in matters that affected family life such as drug and alcohol problems and HIV AIDS encouraged his desire to make this bequest.

“This bequest honours Herbert Gibson’s long held desire to help the underprivileged and marginalised in our society,” said Mr Underwood. “His hope was that graduates from rural areas who become doctors may want at some stage to go back and work in rural areas.”

After graduating from Monash University, Dr Gibson worked as a Resident Medical Officer at the Bendigo Base Hospital. Like most medical practitioners Dr Gibson was fully aware of the continuing shortage of doctors in regional areas and the constant unreasonable demands and pressure on the health of those practicing in many parts of the country frequently alone. He wanted to encourage more regional students to graduate and take their skills back to where they are most in need.

The scholarship aims to keep good doctors in rural areas by assisting students from country Victoria to study medicine at Monash University. It will also to continue the legacy of a dedicated, generous physician who was recognised as a brilliant diagnostician and a caring human being.

Dr Gibson died suddenly in June 2010 at the age of 64.