Gidgee Healing CEO Renee Blackman, Gidgee Healing Nurse Tahnia-Maree Ah Kit and Registered Nurse with NWHHS Lee West were included in a video call with Prince Charles, Camilla Duchess Cornwall, Princess Anne, Prince William and Kate Middleton and Princess Alexandra.

The call was in honour of International Nurses Day the Queen and other members of the royal family spoke to nurses across the world.

Her Majesty was joined by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Princess Royal, the Countess of Wessex and Princess Alexandra who took part in the tributes.to frontline health heroes across the UK and Commonwealth.

It was quite a coup for Gidgee Healing to be the Australian representative on the call (two staff as well as a local Health Service nurse) and a testament to how the Indigenous health agency is considered on the Queensland, national and now international stage.

Mount Isa may be known as a mining town - and we are certainly world class in that arena - but our reputation as a centre of health excellence is growing too.

Young doctors and nurses flock to Mount Isa Hospital to learn in a dynamic environment while James Cook University's Centre for Rural and Remote Health has long been an agenda setter with influence well beyond its Mount Isa campus.

We've been fortunate that we had no cases of COVID-19 so far in our region and seen some signs of normality returning.

But if we do get any, I'm confident in the quality of our health services to deal diligently with them.

We could do a lot worse than a royal stamp of approval.