John Batten, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, was trained in Victoria and Tasmania before eventually settling down in the North of the state where he established himself as a widely respected medical professional.

He is being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to orthopaedic medicine and to various professional bodies.

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Dr Batten has served as the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons president and the Australian Orthopaedic Association president, among other senior roles.

He's a senior lecturer in surgery at the University of Tasmania's School of Medicine and was a visiting medical officer at the Launceston General Hospital for 30 years.

Dr Batten said it was "a great honour" to receive national recognition for his work.

He said he felt immense pride for having worked at the LGH, describing it as one of the best regional hospitals in the country.

"It punches well above its weight," Dr Batten said. "It does tremendous work ... at a very, very high standard."

"The unit which I was part of consists of trainees who have been through our program at Launceston.

"So I think that speaks highly of the culture of our workplace, in orthopaedics, and generally at that hospital."

Dr Batten now has an honourary position at the hospital, where he continues to teach.

He said being the head of a number of professional bodies was a rewarding experience.

"Being the first Tasmanian to be [the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons president] is quite a privilege and a proud moment for Tasmania," Dr Batten said.

"And, as I said when I took that office, it was to reflect regional surgery and how good Launceston does that."

Kim Rooney, also of Launceston, is being honoured for her service to medicine with a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Dr Rooney, a physician with expertise in haematology and palliative care, was the director of the Launceston Clinical School for 11 years.

She worked at the LGH from 1983, as well as operating a private practice, until retiring just recently.

"The clinical school was always significantly underrepresented, I think, largely because we didn't have a place that was ours," she said. "But we very actively lobbied during the Gillard times to get funding to build a dedicated purpose-built school, which we have directly adjoining the hospital."

"And we have 110-120 students each year there.

"My proudest moment is actually probably with the ... school and seeing the programs that we put in place deliver really, really good doctors.

"If you can offer doctors, trainees and practitioners good experience and education in a regional area, you've got a much better chance of attracting them back to that area."

Dr Rooney has an impressive CV, having been a director of the Australian Medical Council and a member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians' national examiners panel.

She said it was "humbling" and "unanticipated" to be awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

John Wettenhall came to Tasmania from Victoria in 1993 to plant the East Arm Vineyard at Hillwood.

The gastroenterologist, who sold the vineyard in 2006 after realising he couldn't give it the care it needed due to his professional duties, worked as a visiting medical officer at the LGH from 1993-2008 and is a former president of the Rotary Club of Launceston.

In recognition of his work as chairman of the Care for Africa Foundation, Dr Wettenhall is being honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the international community through the provision of water, sanitation and medical programs.

Since 2016, Dr Wettenhall has made annual trips to Tarime in Tanzania, where he helps facilitate the installation of wells to provide villages with fresh water.

"Care for Africa, I really do get a lot of joy out of," he said. "You know you're achieving something."

From 2011-15, Dr Wettenhall volunteered at the Republic of Nauru Hospital, where he treated both native Nauruans and asylum seekers interned on the island.

"Things did get a bit tense for obvious reasons," he said. "It was sort of getting difficult and I called it a day."

"But at that stage, the University of the South Pacific in Fiji was starting to provide support to other Pacific countries anyway. So Nauru was put into that mix."

"The Nauruan government was a bit ordinary and the situation with the asylum seekers was, at times, distressing.

"There were people who'd been through horrors in Iraq and you really felt for them. My guess is they're resettled somewhere now but I just felt uneasy about it all."

Dr Wettenhall said it was exciting to him to be honoured for the work he'd done.

"I'm acutely aware of all sorts of other people I know who probably should be similarly honoured," he said.

Soon, Dr Wettenhall will be travelling to West Timor with fellow members of the Rotarians Against Malaria group, with the aim of furthering malaria prevention in the region.