Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive - User contributions [en]

Postgraduate Committee in Medicine

2008-03-30T16:28:55Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions In 1912 there was a meeting in the Senate Room in Phillip Street of representatives of the city hospitals and the University of Sydney, chaired by Anderson Stuart...

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In 1912 there was a meeting in the Senate Room in Phillip Street of representatives of the city hospitals and the University of Sydney, chaired by Anderson Stuart, and it was agreed that the time was ripe to institute postgraduate work in medicine. There were, however, no concrete proposals. In 1913, H. H. Schlink, Medical Superintendent of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, had discussions with the Dean, and drew up a detailed memorandum on the objects, scope and organization of a proposed ‘Medical Postgraduate Association’. He wrote that the Faculty of Medicine was the body most suited to sponsor it. Nevertheless, at Faculty, the matter was allowed to drop. In 1919, an editorial in The Medical Journal of Australia drew attention to the failure of the 1913 proposal and emphasized the need for postgraduate training of practitioners returning from the War.

It was not until 1929 that the N.S.W. Branch of the B.M.A. formed a Standing Committee for the organization of postgraduate work and a number of courses were given. In 1932, this Standing Committee of the B.M.A. became the autonomous N.S.W. Permanent Postgraduate Committee, consisting of representatives of the B.M.A., the University of Sydney, and the main metropolitan hospitals. V. M. Coppleson became the Honorary Secretary and the Committee became very active in arranging courses in the city and in extending the country courses. It also considered instituting teaching for higher medical qualifications.

The Committee approached the Senate of the University of Sydney seeking closer cooperation and, in 1935, Senate adopted a new by-law establishing the N.S.W. Postgraduate Committee in Medicine, which took over the functions and the assets of its progenitor. Victor Coppleson was already a driving force and, in 1936, the N.S.W. Parliament established the Prince Henry Hospital as a Postgraduate School of Medicine, organized by the Postgraduate Committee, which established an office there. S. A. Smith and Sir Hugh Poate were appointed the first Directors of Medicine and Surgery, respectively, but the advent of World War II interrupted this project.

Between 1944 and 1947 the Committee moved its office from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians building to 131 Macquarie Street. Coppleson became the Honorary Director of Postgraduate Medical Studies and Selwyn G. Nelson joined the Committee. During this time many correspondence courses were conducted for returned practitioners. In 1960 the Committee moved from Macquarie Street to Herford House (owned by the Benevolent Society), in the grounds of the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington. Then, in 1965, it moved to Lucas Street, Camperdown, into buildings owned by Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Finally, it moved to its present campus site in the Coppleson Institute, in 1977, fulfilling Coppleson’s dearest wish but, unhappily, after his death. In 1980 the Postgraduate Committee in Medicine became a Faculty of Medicine Subcommittee and the Dean ex officio its Chairman.

An Australian Postgraduate Federation in Medicine was formed in 1948, largely as a result of Victor Coppleson’s efforts; he was Honorary Secretary and became President in 1960. Memoranda and Articles were prepared in Sydney by the Committee and, in 1962, the Federation was incorporated in Canberra with representation of all postgraduate organizations, all national medical bodies, the Royal Colleges and other appropriate bodies.

The Postgraduate Medical Foundation was established by Senate in 1958 after several years of planning, and a formal launching took place in the Great Hall in 1959 in the presence of the Governor of N.S.W. and the Chancellor. The President was Sir Frank Packer and the Chairman, Mr L. W. Farnsworth. Its object was ‘… to assist the Postgraduate Committee in promoting education and research in every possible way …’. Sir Robert Crighton Brown is now President and the Foundation makes about $250,000 available for research each year. The Postgraduate Committee, through its Research Committee, administers these funds and makes grants, especially fellowships, after advertisement.

The Victor Coppleson Institute of Postgraduate Medical Studies, funded by donations after Sir Victor Coppleson’s death in 1965, was inaugurated in the Great Hall of the University in 1971 and the building bearing the Institute’s name was opened in 1977.

The primary object of the Committee has been, in the words of the Chairman and Director, Coppleson (1957) ‘… to assist the practising doctor in the diagnosis, management and treatment of his patients by the most modern and scientific methods …’ and, for more than fifty years, a most successful revision course has been conducted annually. This is usually opened by the Chancellor. Other activities have included city and country courses for general practitioners, the provision of audio-visual material, courses on advanced medicine for those seeking higher qualifications, and the organization of conferences and symposia on a wide variety of topics, commonly on postgraduate training and education. For many years the Committee was responsible for the organization and conduct of courses for University Diplomas which included the Diplomas of Dermatological Medicine, Psychological Medicine, Ophthalmology, Anaesthesia, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and Radiology. Courses for Part I of the FRACS and FRACR in the basic sciences are still organized by the Committee. Its journal (the Bulletin of the Postgraduate Committee in Medicine of the University of Sydney) has been published for nearly fifty years. Close relations are maintained with other postgraduate committees in N.S.W. and in other States.

Sir Victor Coppleson MB ChM FRCS FRACS FACS was born in Wee Waa, N.S.W., graduated from Sydney 1915 and then served in New Guinea, Egypt and France in the First World War. He obtained his FRCS in 1921 and became Honorary Surgeon at St Vincent’s and the Royal North Shore Hospitals. He was one time Curator of the Anatomy Museum, Demonstrator in Anatomy and Lecturer in Surgery, and was the author of several medical and other texts — his book Shark Attack (1958) is perhaps most widely known. He put enormous effort into all phases of the Postgraduate Committee’s work and the chronicle set out here can be attributed primarily to his vision and to his efforts to get things done. He accomplished much in his thirty-two years as Honorary Secretary, Director and Chairman. For many years his right hand was Selwyn G. Nelson OBE KtStJ BSc MB BS FRACP FRCPEd FRCM, who not only worked closely with Coppleson from 1944, serving as Honorary Secretary and Honorary Assistant Director, but also most ably took over as Honorary Director in 1965, remaining in that post until 1975, and as Chairman until 1980. He has a wide range of activities outside of his profession — he is a Commissioner of the Priory of St John, a Knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and a member of the Order’s N.S.W. Executive.

The Postgraduate Committee in the University of Sydney has played the leading role in continuing education in Australia through Sir Victor Coppleson’s vision and drive. Its unique University attachment from its very early days placed it in a position where it could achieve more than its counterparts elsewhere, particularly since its subcommittees have always been dominated by people representing wide interests in the medical community, both academic and professional.

Source: C. R. B. Blackburn, "Postgraduate Commitee in Medicine" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Parramatta Psychiatric Centre

2008-03-30T16:26:34Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions The Parramatta Psychiatric Centre has provided clinical experience for medical students since 1968. The history of the Centre dates back to 1846, at which time a ...

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The Parramatta Psychiatric Centre has provided clinical experience for medical students since 1968. The history of the Centre dates back to 1846, at which time a tract of land for an asylum was granted. Before 1960 the centre was known as Parramatta Mental Hospital and operated in a traditional role. However, following the complete reorganization of the Centre after 1960, it was modernized and now has responsibility for the assessment and care of patients admitted from the western part of Sydney. Because of its association with community after-care services, the number of long-stay patients has dropped dramatically. With the growing population in the west of Sydney, the centre has become one of the busiest admission units for the care of acutely ill patients with psychiatric disorders, and specialized services have been developed for geriatric psychiatry, drug- and alcohol-dependency, rehabilitation, community placement and psychotherapy. Before the introduction of the medical student teaching affiliation, the Centre became active in preparing practitioners for Membership of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. A large psychiatric nurses’ training school was also well established.

Arrangements were made for medical students to be supervised by senior medical staff and psychiatrists in relation to their direct experiences of interviewing and assessing patients with common psychiatric disorders. Tutorials were provided on the range of clinical problems and disorders encountered.
Improvement in the range of texts and references in the Centre’s medical library was arranged specifically to aid the medical students in their studies. Recently, the number of medical students has increased, with those from Concord and Westmead Hospitals being allocated terms at the Centre and at its associated community mental health clinics.

Over its fourteen years of affiliation with Sydney University, Parramatta Psychiatric Centre has continued to provide the main facility for admissions of referred patients from the major part of the western region of Sydney. The number of admissions has fallen somewhat since the introduction of community mental health services which, through crisis intervention, have avoided some admissions. There are about 200 inpatients who stay an average of approximately twenty-six days; they have problems including psychoses, neurotic disorders, depression, personality disorders, drug- and alcohol-dependency, neuropsychiatric conditions and organic brain syndromes. About 200 acutely ill patients are cared for by four admission teams, each with a multi-disciplinary approach: two adult admission units covering defined geographic areas, a geriatric psychiatry unit, and a drug- and alcohol-dependency unit. With 2,200 admissions per annum, the Hospital enables students to obtain a wide experience through tutorials and individual supervision.

Source: K. Henson, "The Parramatta Psychiatric Centre" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children

2008-03-30T16:25:10Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals The association between the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children1 and the University of Sydney dates back to 1884 when the Hospital, then ...

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The association between the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children1 and the University of Sydney dates back to 1884 when the Hospital, then sited at Glebe, and known as The Sydney Hospital for Sick Children, was recognized by the University just one year after the Medical School had begun as a place of clinical instruction. At that time, Professor Anderson Stuart was one of the Hospital Physicians. The Hospital moved to its present site in Camperdown in 1906.

In 1924, when (Sir) Charles Clubbe was President of the Board of Management, formal arrangements were made for the regular attendance of students for lectures and clinical instruction in the wards. Over the next two years, a teaching block was built with a large lecture theatre (later to be known as the Lorimer Dods Lecture Theatre) and common rooms. Two Lecturers in Paediatrics were appointed: Edgar Stephen (Medicine) and (Sir) Robert Wade (Surgery). From that time all appointments to the honorary staff were made by a Conjoint Board, which consisted of representatives of the University and of the Hospital. The two great teachers of recent memory, Lorimer Dods and J. S. Steigrad, were appointed Tutors in 1937 and influenced many decades of medical students.

After the Second World War, the need to promote paediatrics and child health was recognized and in 1949 an Institute of Child Health was established by the Commonwealth Government within the Hospital grounds. The University agreed to grant the title of Professor of Child Health to the Head of the Institute, and the Hospital undertook to make available teaching and clinical facilities, and to grant the Professor the status of an Honorary Physician of the Hospital. Lorimer Dods was appointed Director of the Institute in November and two months later, Professor of Child Health.

The Hospital today continues that tradition of teaching. The Children’s Hospital now has 340 beds and provides a full range of diagnostic and treatment facilities ranging from a twenty-four hour child abuse service to open-heart surgery capable of corrective surgery in tiny premature infants: from postgraduate training programmes to community-based, parent courses in child-rearing. It indeed continues to be relevant to all aspects of paediatrics and child care throughout the State.

1The Hospital was founded in 1880 as ‘The Sydney Hospital for Sick Children’. Its name was changed to the ‘Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children’ on 4 January 1904 when King Edward VII granted use of the appellation ‘Royal’ and his consort, Queen Alexandra, consented to the use of her name (J.A.Y.).

Source: John Yu, "Royal Alexandra Hospital" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Women's Hospital, Crown Street

2008-03-30T15:44:31Z

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The Women’s Hospital was founded in 1893 in a four-roomed house in Hay Street and moved to its present site in 1897.

On 13 August 1895, the first duly constituted Board of the Women’s Hospital adopted as its working plan, a simple set of objectives which today remain substantially unchanged, the fourth of these being ‘Training School where obstetrical nursing in all its branches may be taught and certificates of efficiency granted’. This objective was enlarged to include the training of medical students as part of their medical course and practitioners by means of special postgraduate courses.

Since 1900 ‘Crown Street’ has been a teaching hospital in obstetrics for medical undergraduates of the University of Sydney. In 1921, when there were 846 births at the Hospital, the Annual Report recorded:

INVALUABLE EXPERIENCE

Fifth year Medical Students continue to avail themselves of practical instruction in midwifery, the term prescribed by the University being three weeks. Students, recognising the value of this arrangement, often apply for a second term, but, unfortunately, until additional patients can be accommodated, this cannot always be arranged and the University has now requested the Hospital to still further increase the number of students to be taken next year. This matter vitally affects every citizen who has occasion to call in the services of an Obstetrician, and he will recognise how essential it is in the interests of young Australia and the community generally, for students and Medical Officer to have sound practical experience in this branch of Medicine.

In 1982 ‘Crown Street’ was the major teaching unit in Obstetrics, teaching some eighty students annually; 4,038 babies were born at the hospital. It is noteworthy that the 1,403 public births provided the greatest opportunity for tuition on deliveries available in New South Wales.

In 1981 there were 3,590 public inpatients as well as 13,333 public outpatients — significant statistics in the teaching programme of this internationally recognized maternity hospital. Amongst other achievements ‘Crown Street’ was the first hospital outside the United States to have a foetal cardiac monitor and pioneered its use in Australia; the first maternity hospital to have local anaesthesia for caesarian sections; the first hospital to have a fertility clinic in Australia and New Zealand; the first to handle the problems of ‘childbirth fever’.

Since 1965 an Associate Professor has been based at the hospital. Clinical Lecturers in Obstetrics and Gynaecology are recommended for appointment by the Board of Medical Studies. To date over 3,500 students have been taught at ‘Crown Street’.

The recent decision by the State Government to close this Hospital with its standing of ninety years will be a loss to the women of N.S.W. and an irreplaceable loss to the teaching of Obstetrics for years to come.

Source: L. Valkenburg, "The Women's Hospital, Crown Street" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington

2008-03-30T15:43:09Z

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In 1820, seven years after the foundation of the Benevolent Society under the approbation of Governor Macquarie, ‘a suitable plain building near the Turnpike House’ was erected on portion of the site now occupied by the Central Railway Station and the inscription on the foundation stone, which is still preserved at the Royal Hospital for Women, reads: ‘This asylum for the poor, blind, aged and infirm was erected in 1820, L. Macquarie Esquire being Governor’.

The first completed portion provided for fifty to sixty persons, but additions were made at different periods in accordance with the increasing demands for accommodation. A development that was destined to have far-reaching effects on the direction of the Benevolent Society into maternity care was the formation on 4 August 1820 of a committee of ladies under the chairmanship of Mrs Macquarie, wife of the then Governor of New South Wales. This committee was the first voluntary organization in the Colony of New South Wales. Its objectives were ‘for the poor married women during their confinement … so that the deserving and virtuous poor, in that hour of trial may experience all the sympathy and relief which female tenderness and commiseration can administer’.

The first accouchement under their care took place in October 1820, and by June 1821, it is recorded in the annual report of the Benevolent Society that six mothers had been confined. Thus began an aspect of institutional maternity care which has continued to the present time. In 1866 it was reported that 129 mothers were confined in the Society’s asylum where a newly completed northern wing of the building was named the ‘Lying-in Hospital of New South Wales’. In 1870 the Society’s annual report states ‘one of the nurses sent by Miss Nightingale from England’ was appointed Matron, and that, in 1877, the Hospital was constituted as a training school for midwives and nurses. So commenced the first formal, organized educational programme for pupil midwives in N.S.W. In the year 1888, medical students attended for obstetric training at the Lying-in Hospital, it being recognized for training purposes by the University of Sydney and Universities in the other Colonies (now States).

In 1901, the Benevolent Asylum and the Lying-in Hospital, an historic block of buildings so long a landmark which the Benevolent Society had occupied for over eighty years, were resumed. The outcome was the dispersal of the various activities of the Society and the acquisition in 1901, of property of seven acres on the hills of Paddington. The property was the home of a man called Dean; his house became the Hospital for Women, Paddington, until a new building was erected and was opened by Lady Northcote, wife of the third Governor General of Australia, on 3 May 1905. It was also in this year that the hospital was granted the title of ‘Royal’ under the patronage of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (4 August 1904).

In 1906 a department for the welfare of infants, to which mothers could bring their babies for consultation and advice, was established. So the first baby health care clinic in Australia was initiated as an aspect of maternity care. On 24 August 1912, an antenatal clinic was established at the Hospital by J. C. Windeyer (later Professor). This may seem a commonplace happening to us today, but it was, in fact, historic. It was a major pioneering effort in promoting the welfare of mothers and babies and has functioned continuously for some sixty-nine years since its establishment — the longest continuous period of service of an antenatal clinic in the British Commonwealth.

From these early times to the present day, many of the outstanding achievements of the Royal Hospital for Women as a modern and leading obstetric and gynaecological hospital, both in education and research, were related to its association with the University of Sydney as a teaching hospital.

Among the Medical Officers of the Benevolent Asylum in its early days are several whose names feature prominently in the history of the Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University. These include William Bland (see Chapter 1), Arthur Renwick (q.v.) and J. C. Windeyer (see Chapters 5 and 8). Bland was the Society’s first Medical Officer (1820–1830) and, after his retirement from this full-time position, became its Gratuitous Surgeon (1830–1863). Renwick served as its Honorary Medical Officer from 1862 to 1877. In 1904, J. C. Windeyer was appointed to the honorary medical staff of the Royal Hospital for Women; he later held the first Chair of Obstetrics in the University of Sydney from 1925. He was followed as Professor by B. T. Mayes in 1941, also an Honorary Medical Officer at the Royal Hospital for Women.

With the establishment of the Medical School at the University of New South Wales, the Hospital ceased to be associated with the University of Sydney and now serves as a teaching hospital for the second Medical School.

Source: J. Greenwell, "The Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Lidcombe Hospital

2008-03-30T15:42:28Z

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Lidcombe Hospital was established in 1893 as the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm to ease overcrowding at other State institutions. Subsequently, in 1896, the Government decided it should be developed as the main institution for the State’s aged male poor.

A salaried Medical Superintendent was appointed to the Asylum staff in 1906. By 1913, clinical departments under the supervision of honorary medical staff had been established in the fields of general medicine, general surgery, neurology, dermatology, ophthalmology and E.N.T. Surgery; in keeping with these developments the name ‘Asylum’ was replaced by the more appropriate ‘State Hospital and Home’. Shortly thereafter, the name of the district was changed from Rookwood to Lidcombe. The ensuing fifty years saw considerable expansion of the institution without much direction and it was not until the mid-1960s that decisions were taken to establish a comprehensive geriatric service, to define a region for which the Hospital would be primarily responsible and to upgrade the medical, surgical and diagnostic services by the appointment of salaried specialists in appropriate areas.

More recent developments have included the establishment of Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Clinical Neurophysiology, the opening of the head injury unit, the establishment of the renal dialysis service, the establishment of a Department of Community Services, the expansion of the psychiatry service, the commencement of the cardiac assessment and rehabilitation programme and the establishment of a vascular unit. Concurrent with these service developments, the Hospital’s involvement in undergraduate teaching has been expanded. A clinical school for medical students from the University of Sydney was established in May 1976, and student units in social work (in conjunction with the University of N.S.W.) and in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing and speech therapy (in conjunction with the Cumberland College of Health Sciences) are now operating.

The Hospital’s earliest association with the University of Sydney Medical School dates back to 1964 when, for a period of about two years, additional tutorials in Clinical Surgery were organized for groups of students attached to the clinical school at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. This initial association with the University lapsed with the resignation of the hospital’s full-time Staff Surgeon, J. E. Moulton, and several years were to pass before the association was reestablished with the provision of tutorials in neurology and ophthalmology. At this time, the Hospital’s facilities were also made available for the conduct of deferred examinations in clinical medicine and clinical surgery.

These early associations were relatively informal and in February 1970, the Hospital’s then Medical Superintendent, G. R. Andrews, commenced discussions with Professors C. R. B. Blackburn, J. Loewenthal and F. R. Magarey with the specific aims of introducing the teaching of geriatrics into the undergraduate curriculum and of placing clinical teaching at Lidcombe on a more formal basis. Both these objectives were achieved. In September 1970, lectures in geriatrics were given to fifth year students during their course in Social and Preventive Medicine, and in June 1971, Senate approval was given for the recognition of Lidcombe as a Special Affiliated Teaching Hospital.

Further expansion of clinical teaching at Lidcombe took place in 1972, following a request from the Warden of the Clinical School at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital to make use of the Hospital’s facilities for fourth-year students. In February 1972, tutorials in geriatrics, chronic disease and rehabilitation medicine were commenced, and in June 1972, tutorials in surgery for final-year students were also commenced.

This arrangement continued until 1975 when, with the impending entry of ‘new curriculum’ students into their clinical years, a decision was taken by the Faculty of Medicine to designate Lidcombe as a provisional teaching hospital until June 1978. Thus in 1976, all previous teaching commitments under the old curriculum were dropped and a temporary clinical school was established in May 1976 for the Hospital’s first group of fourteen ‘new curriculum’ students. Following the end of the overlap period of the old and the new curriculum students in 1978, a decision was taken to maintain the clinical school at Lidcombe, and 1982 saw the entry of its seventh group of students and the appointment of two of the hospital’s senior specialists, P. F. Thursby and G. A. Broe, to positions as Clinical Senior Lecturers.

In summary, Lidcombe has functioned for much of its existence as a hospital for chronic diseases, catering particularly for the aged and indigent. However, in contrast to many similar institutions, it also provided most of the necessary acute medical and surgical services. From this base, the Hospital has been developed into a large modern complex providing a wide range of services, and providing clinical instruction for students, including those in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sydney

Source: G. W. Carter, "Lidcombe Hospital" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Repatriation General Hospital Concord

2008-03-30T15:41:43Z

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Concord Hospital was erected in 1941–1942 by the Department of the Army and was known as the ‘113th Australian General Hospital’. It was designed to cater for the treatment of members of the armed forces and received its first patient in March 1941. The administration of the Hospital was handed over to the Repatriation Commission in 1947. The Hospital, which is operated by the Commonwealth Government through the Department of Veterans Affairs, at present has a patient capacity of 731; a total of 2,356 full-time and 193 part-time staff are employed.

The role of the Hospital is to provide in-patient treatment for veterans and eligible dependants requiring the facilities of an acute general hospital. The policy is for the Hospital to be maintained at a high clinical standard to enable it to provide a wide range of treatment for repatriation beneficiaries. To maintain this standard, the Hospital is associated as a teaching hospital with the University of Sydney. It has an emergency accident centre and community patients are treated in order to ensure a varied clinical caseload.

Concord Hospital first entered the field of undergraduate teaching in 1948 to meet the needs of the University during the period of high post-war enrolments. These arrangements were suspended in 1951 but recommenced in 1963 when the Hospital was affiliated with the University of Sydney as a teaching hospital for medical undergraduates. There are at present 137 students at the hospital in the final three years of the University medical course.

Two Professors, one each in Medicine and Surgery, and an Associate Professor in Psychiatry, oversee medical undergraduate training with the participation of other University staff, full-time departmental specialists and some visiting specialists. The Hospital is also accredited as a postgraduate training institution in a number of specialties including medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, anaesthetics, psychiatry, pathology, radiology and rehabilitation. In conjunction with other teaching hospitals, Concord participates in postgraduate exchange and rotation programmes.

The completion of the clinical sciences building in 1973 has greatly facilitated both undergraduate and postgraduate training, together with the overall administration of the clinical school. The building comprises offices, examination rooms, tutorial rooms, demonstration rooms, a lecture theatre, Professorial Units and research laboratories. The opening of the emergency accident centre in 1976 broadened the range of clinical material at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

In 1980, extensions to the clinical sciences building were completed; these have enabled wider use of the latest teaching aids, such as audio-visual equipment and a computer terminal which allows student self-assessment. Included in the new extensions are lecture theatres, lounge and television rooms for students, tutorial rooms and several offices for research fellows.

A Professorial Sub-Unit of Surgery commenced in 1966, the Professorial Sub-Unit of Medicine commenced in 1969, and the Sub-Unit of Psychiatry in 1971. The present full-time University appointees to the clinical school are: Professors R. Lusby (Surgery) and J. R. Lawrence (Medicine); Associate Professor C. Tennant (Psychiatry); L. Bokey, Senior Lecturer (Surgery); J. Payne, Senior Lecturer (Surgery); and R. Walls, Senior Lecturer (Medicine). Professor M. T. Pheils, the first Professor of Surgery, retired at the end of 1982.

As a major teaching hospital, Concord is conscious of the need to provide medical care of an exceptionally high quality. It plays a role in educating practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals and actively contributes to the advance of medical knowledge. Medical research is the means whereby advance is achieved and as such it is encouraged at the Hospital. The spirit and practice of research have grown within the Hospital, and over recent years a number of services have been developed to cater for the needs of investigators. Computer facilities have been used to develop a generalized data analysis programme to facilitate retrieval of records for retrospective research. The Hospital’s medical record librarians are deeply involved in the research programmes, and the well-equipped medical library provides research workers with ready access to reference material.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs recognizes two areas of responsibility in relation to medical research carried out in the Hospital: firstly, a need to encourage and support medical research as an integral part of the process of patient care and secondly, a need to ensure high technical and ethical standards in research. Within the framework of a two-tiered advisory committee structure, a large number of research projects is carried out in the hospital; these range from basic biomedical investigations to research into health services.

The Professorial Surgical Unit has, over the past eight years, specialized in the investigation of disorders of the large bowel. Clinical, pathological and immunological studies have been performed on patients suffering from colo-rectal cancer. In 1978 the Professorial Unit, in conjunction with two Visiting Surgeons, formed the colo-rectal clinic to investigate and treat disorders of the colon and rectum. The members of the Unit have performed an increasing number of colonoscopies. The Unit has treated many new cases of rectal cancer by an operation which conserves the patients’ normal anatomy, made possible by the development of an automatic stapling device called the E.E.A. gun. The clinical and pathological pro forma created for storing data by computer has been widely acclaimed and is probably unique in the study of diseases of the colon and rectum. Laboratory studies have continued into immunological and other tests to monitor and perhaps make an earlier diagnosis of the disease with the hope of improving survival rates.

Much progress has also been achieved in the transplantation of Islets of Langerhans in the treatment of diabetes.

From 1977, the Professorial Medical Unit began to share with the hospital clinical responsibilities for general medical, immunological and renal patients. The various research projects undertaken by the Unit include a study of seasonal allergy in rural N.S.W.; immunological aspects of glomerulonephritis; clinical aspects of systemic lupus erythematosis; the effects of prolonged immunotherapy; research into Huntingdon’s disease, electrolyte metabolism and hypertension.

The Professorial Psychiatry Unit has had an active interest in the area of stress and psychopathology. Research has continued into the association between psychological factors, heart disease and gastrointestinal disease, in collaboration with physicians and surgeons in the Hospital.

The undergraduate teaching programme has continued in recent years with a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students. Outstanding results have been obtained by the students in the three-year clinical phase of their tuition. The Medical, Surgical and Psychiatric Units have all had a very successful association with the Hospital, actively participating in the Hospital’s educational programmes such as the weekly physicians’ workshop. Certainly the University will continue to make a valuable contribution to Concord Hospital in the future. The Hospital provides a high standard of patient care to entitled veterans and to members of the community, and this achievement is largely due to the abilities and performance of the health care professionals associated with the University of Sydney.

Source: J. W. Mold, "Repatriation General Hospital Concord" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

St George Hospital

2008-03-30T15:41:00Z

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St George Hospital was a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney between 1963 and 1967. Founded in 1892 as The St George Cottage Hospital with eight beds, it became a nurses’ training school in 1909. The Hospital was enlarged in 1918 and its scope and facilities were further extended in 1924, again during the decade of the thirties, and once again in 1966.

Fourth-year students from the University of Sydney started at the Hospital in 1963. An academic presence at the Hospital was represented in the person of Associate Professor James McRae, who also served as student supervisor. The ‘old’ clinical school was housed in the refurbished Medical Superintendent’s residence, a building that dated back to 1878. A new, well-equipped clinical school was completed in 1967, the year in which St George became a teaching hospital for the newly created Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Special arrangements were made for the last group of Sydney students to complete their final year at St George, harmoniously sharing the clinical facilities with fourth-year students from the University of New South Wales in what they described as a unique experience.

Although there were only three groups of students from the University of Sydney to complete their clinical years at St George, the Hospital provided much needed facilities and clinical instruction at a time of considerable stress in terms of student numbers. St George remains a teaching hospital for the University of New South Wales.

Source: Ann Jervie Sefton, "St George Hospital" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Mater Misericordiae Hospital

2008-03-30T15:38:31Z

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The first formal arrangement between the Mater Hospital, North Sydney, and the University of Sydney involving undergraduate medical student teaching, was entered into in 1966. In that year, the Hospital was approached by the Sydney University Medical Society and agreed to accept four fifth-year students for their unallocated term, commencing 1 September 1966 and ending on 28 February in the following year. Quite coincidentally, the General Superintendent, John Westphalen, had proposed to the Advisory Board of the Hospital in 1966 that a dialogue be initiated with the University of Sydney concerning affiliation of the Mater as a teaching hospital.

With the approval of the Board and the encouragement of the Sisters of Mercy, innovative proposals were canvassed at length with the then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor John Loewenthal, in December of that year. In 1967, representatives of the Hospital met formally with Professor Loewenthal. A prospective teaching status for the Mater Hospital was discussed, based upon an innovative and unique arrangement that was subsequently implemented with bilaterally recognized success. In brief, singular features of the proposal were as follows:

1. The Mater would not, in the interests of economy, establish its own separate clinical school. It would, rather, work through and in conjunction with the already-established clinical school at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

2. Beds available in the contiguous Private Hospital would be utilized for teaching purposes.
3. Student allocation to the Hospital would be on a rotating basis so that all students of the Royal North Shore Hospital Clinical School would receive maximum exposure to the combined teaching facilities.

4. To control these arrangements, the Mater Hospital would work through the University Board of Studies already operating at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

5. All teaching arrangements and student allocations would be organized through the Warden of the Clinical School of the Royal North Shore Hospital, rather than be arranged separately at the Mater.

6. In all other respects, the Hospital would relate to the University, as do other teaching hospitals, through a conjoint University/Hospital Board.

After reaching agreement with the Royal North Shore Hospital, the Mater received a formal invitation from the Senate of the University to affiliate as a general teaching hospital in August 1968; teaching commenced in 1969 with initial numbers divided into two groups of seven students each on a rotating basis. From those beginnings, the coordinated Mater/Royal North Shore teaching nexus moved from success to success, confirmed by consistently positive feedback from students. This undergraduate teaching model is unique, insofar as we know, throughout Australia, and has since developed to encompass students in all clinical years. Special training in rehabilitation and geriatrics has been added, and some six to twelve overseas undergraduates are placed at the Mater each year for ‘live-in’ training.

The ongoing success of the integrated programme was in significant part due to the enthusiasm and cooperation of the Wardens of the Clinical School at Royal North Shore Hospital and their Clinical Supervisors: first I. Monk, then G. E. Bauer. To those people were joined Professor D. W. Piper (Medicine), Professor T. S. Reeve (Surgery), and the late Associate Professor G. E. Coupland. These three men, in particular, enthusiastically developed academic arrangements and monitored teaching standards.

With the closure of the public beds at the Hospital, the role of the Mater and its relationship to the Faculty of Medicine will change. For the future, the Mater looks forward to a continuing role in medical education through its private beds. It is fortuitous, but proper, that this brief history of an era and a successful cost-effective teaching innovation be recorded in such a historical document as the Centenary Book, marking the hundredth birthday of Sydney University Medical School.

Source: J. B. Westphalen, "Mater Misericordiae Hospital" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Royal North Shore Hospital

2008-03-30T15:35:50Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In the 1880s a population of some 20,000 lived in relative isolation on the North Shore of Sydney. Any who became ill faced a long and hazardous journey by dray and punt to the city for attention. In 1885, Mr Frank Treatt, the local magistrate, and his wife were instrumental in establishing a committee of citizens to plan for a hospital and to raise funds.

A successful Industrial Exhibition and public appeals were held; the first Hospital Committee was formed in 1886. On 18 June 1887 the foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes, then the Colonial Secretary, on a site on the North Willoughby Road, St Leonards (now Crows Nest). The land had been given by Mr David Berry, one of a family of Scottish merchants who grew produce in the Shoalhaven area, transporting it to Sydney by coastal boat and landing at a site which now bears his name — Berry’s Bay — which was also in the large municipality of St Leonards. It was subsequently divided into districts, the main one becoming North Sydney.

On Monday 18 June 1888, the North Shore Cottage Hospital, with fourteen beds and a nursing staff of five, opened ‘for the reception of accident patients and illness occurring among the poor of the district’. The total cost, including the land, had been £2,960.

By the turn of the century the railway from Hornsby to St Leonards had been completed, the population had grown to 56,000 and, although enlarged twice, the Hospital could not meet the demands made on it. As has happened many times since, funds and facilities were insufficient and there was frequent public outcry due to patients being refused admission or being accommodated in sub-standard conditions. Public indignation reached its peak when it was found that a tent had been erected in the grounds to take the overflow.
Part of the Gore Hill Reserve, half a mile to the west of the original site, was set aside to build a new hospital capable of expansion to meet future needs. It is of interest that the area derived its name from William Gore, who died there, ‘in exile’, in 1845. He had come to Australia in 1806 as Provost-Marshal to Governor Bligh. He was prominent in the arrest of Captain John Macarthur which led to the revolt by the NSW Corps and subsequent imprisonment of Bligh.

A public competition was held for a design for the new hospital. The winning plan, setting a pattern so familiar in later years, provided for the Hospital to be built in stages so as to comprise five two-storey pavilion wards. ‘The buildings are carried out in brick with stone dressings, the design being Renaissance and the dressing sparingly used on the score of expense, but with architectural effect.’ Given the styling Royal<ref>It is interesting to note that the Royal North Shore Hospital acquired the appellation “Royal” on 11 September 1902, some months before Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was granted the same honour (announced in November 1902, but formally notified on 8 January 1903). Soon afterwards, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (4 January 1904) and the Royal Hospital for Women (4 August 1904) also followed suit. It seems possible that the “presumption” of the North Shore Hospital, then only just emerging from its cottage hospital days, irritated Anderson Stuart, newly appointed as Chairman of the Prince Alfred Board, and induced him to seek similar status for the University Hospital. His move then seems to have precipitated the other two Hospitals into action. Since that time, royal patronage of public hospitals in N.S.W. has also been extended to the Royal South Sydney (21 December 1917), the Royal Newcastle, (18 February 1949) and the Royal Ryde Rehabilitation (27 December 1978) Hospitals. (J.A.Y.)</ref> by King Edward VII on 11 September 1902, following his Coronation, the new forty-eight-bed ‘Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney’ opened on its present site on 10 June 1903.

The original Cottage Hospital, the site of which now faces Willoughby Road, Crows Nest, and is bounded by Holterman and Albany Streets, was subsequently purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. In 1906 they began there the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, which was also later to move to the highway to allow for expansion. The two Hospitals became formally associated in 1969 when the Mater became an affiliated Teaching Hospital with the Royal North Shore. This association has been most amicable and successful and of great value to the Sydney University’s Medical Faculty in being able to provide adequate clinical teaching during a most difficult era.

The original plan was followed until the time of the First World War when the Hospital, about half-completed, comprised 132 beds. This was still inadequate to meet the needs of the expanding population, but a proposed new six-storey block was an early casualty of the War. Between the Wars there were many developments, to prove of great importance later. A separate outdoor patients’ block was completed, a maternity block was built, a research institute was established, pioneering clinics for chest diseases and for the treatment of diabetes were set up, together with a clinic to enable Sister Elizabeth Kenny to introduce her methods for treatment of infantile paralysis. The bed capacity reached 354. But it was all rather haphazard and disrupted by the depression, giving the scattered and varied buildings which provide their own problems today. Fortunately, additional land was regularly acquired for expansion, so this has never proved a big problem. There were five major land allocations which, with numerous small blocks added, now total some thirty-five acres.

Following the Second World War consideration was being given to the establishment of additional clinical schools. Sir Norman Nock (who was to serve twenty-eight years as the Hospital’s Chairman), strongly believed that Royal North Shore was in an ideal position to be one of these new clinical schools. He, with the Board, planned and worked hard to this end, appointing a committee to prepare for such a development. The Chairman of this committee was W. Wilson Ingram, then an established Macquarie Street physician, who had been a leading force behind many of the improvements between the two wars. He was to become the first Clinical Lecturer and to be Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies for twenty-six years.

The outcome was that the Senate of the University, on 14 October 1946, resolved to invite the Board to ‘agree to the Hospital being recognised as a Clinical School for the instruction of Medical Undergraduates’. The Board accepted in November 1946 and immediately implemented another decision, taken in accordance with the recommendations of a public enquiry held in 1939, that the Chief Executive Officer should be a medical graduate. Wallace Freeborn, who was a Sydney graduate, commenced in this position on 10 December 1946. He was one of the few Australians appropriately qualified, having had extensive postgraduate training in London hospitals during the 1920s and 1930s and was established as a specialist in Harley Street at the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War he held various positions of command, finally that of Commanding Officer in a hospital ship. He immediately began organizing Royal North Shore along the lines of a London teaching hospital and introduced the registrar system of staffing and postgraduate training.

These three outstanding men (Nock, Freeborn and Ingram), whose names are now perpetuated within the Hospital, went on to play major roles in the future development of Royal North Shore, after the official inauguration of the Clinical School on 15 March 1948 by the Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn.

Starting with forty students, the total reached 128 in 1950 and thereafter fluctuated until it reached a peak of 210 in 1977. As a district hospital emerging from the neglect of the war years, patient facilities were far from adequate and of course facilities for students were nil. There were many promises but very little materialized, so that student accommodation was inadequate and overcrowded for years.

The new acute ward block, promised as part of the teaching hospital development, was similarly slow to materialize and the haphazard development of clinical facilities continued during the 1950s. A first-class thoracic unit had been completed in the Commonwealth Anti-T.B. campaign and with it an excellent nurses’ home, but otherwise temporary prefabricated units, converted cottages and other forms of makeshift took the available beds to 548, before finance and permission to proceed finally came. The four-stage development programme, approved in 1958, which included a 600-bed multi-storey ward block, took some twenty years to complete. Now, following some consequential re-organization of older facilities, the total number of beds available is 920.

The first part of the planned and long-promised ‘education block’ was not built until 1963, following the advent of the Australian University Commission’s triennial system of grants. Under this system twelve building projects were approved over five triennia. These provided: a clinical teaching block with a main lecture theatre and a library; a students’ amenities block and students’ residence joined by common rooms; various tutorial and demonstration rooms; and a five-level Professorial block adjacent to the Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

The last of these projects, the extension of the library, which completed the top floor of the teaching block, was finished in 1978. In a unique historical event, W. Wilson Ingram participated in his last official function for the Hospital when he unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark its completion on 6 December 1978, which was coincidentally his 90th birthday.

The first Sub-Professorial units were established with Associate Professor Reeve in Surgery in 1962, and Associate Professor Piper in Medicine in 1963. Appropriately both of these men, who have contributed so much to the teaching standards of the Clinical School, were appointed the first Professors when full Chairs were established, in Medicine in 1972 and Surgery in 1973. A Chair in Orthopaedics and Traumatic Surgery was established in 1970 and is held by T. K. F. Taylor, and a Chair in Rheumatology was filled in 1983 by P. M. Brooks.

Thus the fourteen-bed Cottage Hospital, founded by the local community to serve the residents of the North Shore, after nearly one hundred years has evolved into a major referral hospital of 920 beds, serving the whole Northern Metropolitan Region and beyond. Now one of the most modern hospitals in the country, it sets and pursues the highest possible standards and has been constantly stimulated in this through its valuable and esteemed status as a clinical school of the University of Sydney. Its history shows that the ‘North Shore’ Hospital has had leaders of outstanding vision and remarkable foresight who have taken far-reaching decisions and vigorously pursued them through the desperate straits of war, depression, inflation and periodic neglect to bring this about. Its founders and subsequent leaders may be justifiably proud of its position and standing today, as it too nears its centenary.

Source: I. R. Vanderfield, "The Royal North Shore Hospital" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

==References==
<references />

St George Hospital

2008-03-30T15:07:47Z

Doakaran: New page: St George Hospital was a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney between 1963 and 1967. Founded in 1892 as The St George Cottage Hospital with eight beds, it became a nurses’ train...

St George Hospital was a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney between 1963 and 1967. Founded in 1892 as The St George Cottage Hospital with eight beds, it became a nurses’ training school in 1909. The Hospital was enlarged in 1918 and its scope and facilities were further extended in 1924, again during the decade of the thirties, and once again in 1966.

Fourth-year students from the University of Sydney started at the Hospital in 1963. An academic presence at the Hospital was represented in the person of Associate Professor James McRae, who also served as student supervisor. The ‘old’ clinical school was housed in the refurbished Medical Superintendent’s residence, a building that dated back to 1878. A new, well-equipped clinical school was completed in 1967, the year in which St George became a teaching hospital for the newly created Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Special arrangements were made for the last group of Sydney students to complete their final year at St George, harmoniously sharing the clinical facilities with fourth-year students from the University of New South Wales in what they described as a unique experience.

Although there were only three groups of students from the University of Sydney to complete their clinical years at St George, the Hospital provided much needed facilities and clinical instruction at a time of considerable stress in terms of student numbers. St George remains a teaching hospital for the University of New South Wales.

Ann Jervie Sefton

Repatriation General Hospital Concord

2008-03-30T15:07:43Z

Doakaran: New page: Concord Hospital was erected in 1941–1942 by the Department of the Army and was known as the ‘113th Australian General Hospital’. It was designed to cater for the treatment of member...

Concord Hospital was erected in 1941–1942 by the Department of the Army and was known as the ‘113th Australian General Hospital’. It was designed to cater for the treatment of members of the armed forces and received its first patient in March 1941. The administration of the Hospital was handed over to the Repatriation Commission in 1947. The Hospital, which is operated by the Commonwealth Government through the Department of Veterans Affairs, at present has a patient capacity of 731; a total of 2,356 full-time and 193 part-time staff are employed.
The role of the Hospital is to provide in-patient treatment for veterans and eligible dependants requiring the facilities of an acute general hospital. The policy is for the Hospital to be maintained at a high clinical standard to enable it to provide a wide range of treatment for repatriation beneficiaries. To maintain this standard, the Hospital is associated as a teaching hospital with the University of Sydney. It has an emergency accident centre and community patients are treated in order to ensure a varied clinical caseload.
Concord Hospital first entered the field of undergraduate teaching in 1948 to meet the needs of the University during the period of high post-war enrolments. These arrangements were suspended in 1951 but recommenced in 1963 when the Hospital was affiliated with the University of Sydney as a teaching hospital for medical undergraduates. There are at present 137 students at the hospital in the final three years of the University medical course.
Two Professors, one each in Medicine and Surgery, and an Associate Professor in Psychiatry, oversee medical undergraduate training with the participation of other University staff, full-time departmental specialists and some visiting specialists. The Hospital is also accredited as a postgraduate training institution in a number of specialties including medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, anaesthetics, psychiatry, pathology, radiology and rehabilitation. In conjunction with other teaching hospitals, Concord participates in postgraduate exchange and rotation programmes.
The completion of the clinical sciences building in 1973 has greatly facilitated both undergraduate and postgraduate training, together with the overall administration of the clinical school. The building comprises offices, examination rooms, tutorial rooms, demonstration rooms, a lecture theatre, Professorial Units and research laboratories. The opening of the emergency accident centre in 1976 broadened the range of clinical material at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
In 1980, extensions to the clinical sciences building were completed; these have enabled wider use of the latest teaching aids, such as audio-visual equipment and a computer terminal which allows student self-assessment. Included in the new extensions are lecture theatres, lounge and television rooms for students, tutorial rooms and several offices for research fellows.
A Professorial Sub-Unit of Surgery commenced in 1966, the Professorial Sub-Unit of Medicine commenced in 1969, and the Sub-Unit of Psychiatry in 1971. The present full-time University appointees to the clinical school are: Professors R. Lusby (Surgery) and J. R. Lawrence (Medicine); Associate Professor C. Tennant (Psychiatry); L. Bokey, Senior Lecturer (Surgery); J. Payne, Senior Lecturer (Surgery); and R. Walls, Senior Lecturer (Medicine). Professor M. T. Pheils, the first Professor of Surgery, retired at the end of 1982.
As a major teaching hospital, Concord is conscious of the need to provide medical care of an exceptionally high quality. It plays a role in educating practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals and actively contributes to the advance of medical knowledge. Medical research is the means whereby advance is achieved and as such it is encouraged at the Hospital. The spirit and practice of research have grown within the Hospital, and over recent years a number of services have been developed to cater for the needs of investigators. Computer facilities have been used to develop a generalized data analysis programme to facilitate retrieval of records for retrospective research. The Hospital’s medical record librarians are deeply involved in the research programmes, and the well-equipped medical library provides research workers with ready access to reference material.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs recognizes two areas of responsibility in relation to medical research carried out in the Hospital: firstly, a need to encourage and support medical research as an integral part of the process of patient care and secondly, a need to ensure high technical and ethical standards in research. Within the framework of a two-tiered advisory committee structure, a large number of research projects is carried out in the hospital; these range from basic biomedical investigations to research into health services.
The Professorial Surgical Unit has, over the past eight years, specialized in the investigation of disorders of the large bowel. Clinical, pathological and immunological studies have been performed on patients suffering from colo-rectal cancer. In 1978 the Professorial Unit, in conjunction with two Visiting Surgeons, formed the colo-rectal clinic to investigate and treat disorders of the colon and rectum. The members of the Unit have performed an increasing number of colonoscopies. The Unit has treated many new cases of rectal cancer by an operation which conserves the patients’ normal anatomy, made possible by the development of an automatic stapling device called the E.E.A. gun. The clinical and pathological pro forma created for storing data by computer has been widely acclaimed and is probably unique in the study of diseases of the colon and rectum. Laboratory studies have continued into immunological and other tests to monitor and perhaps make an earlier diagnosis of the disease with the hope of improving survival rates.
Much progress has also been achieved in the transplantation of Islets of Langerhans in the treatment of diabetes.
From 1977, the Professorial Medical Unit began to share with the hospital clinical responsibilities for general medical, immunological and renal patients. The various research projects undertaken by the Unit include a study of seasonal allergy in rural N.S.W.; immunological aspects of glomerulonephritis; clinical aspects of systemic lupus erythematosis; the effects of prolonged immunotherapy; research into Huntingdon’s disease, electrolyte metabolism and hypertension.
The Professorial Psychiatry Unit has had an active interest in the area of stress and psychopathology. Research has continued into the association between psychological factors, heart disease and gastrointestinal disease, in collaboration with physicians and surgeons in the Hospital.
The undergraduate teaching programme has continued in recent years with a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students. Outstanding results have been obtained by the students in the three-year clinical phase of their tuition. The Medical, Surgical and Psychiatric Units have all had a very successful association with the Hospital, actively participating in the Hospital’s educational programmes such as the weekly physicians’ workshop. Certainly the University will continue to make a valuable contribution to Concord Hospital in the future. The Hospital provides a high standard of patient care to entitled veterans and to members of the community, and this achievement is largely due to the abilities and performance of the health care professionals associated with the University of Sydney.

J. W. Mold

Lidcombe Hospital

2008-03-30T15:07:40Z

Doakaran: New page: Lidcombe Hospital was established in 1893 as the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm to ease overcrowding at other State institutions. Subsequently, in 1896, the Government decided it ...

Lidcombe Hospital was established in 1893 as the Rookwood Asylum for the Aged and Infirm to ease overcrowding at other State institutions. Subsequently, in 1896, the Government decided it should be developed as the main institution for the State’s aged male poor.
A salaried Medical Superintendent was appointed to the Asylum staff in 1906. By 1913, clinical departments under the supervision of honorary medical staff had been established in the fields of general medicine, general surgery, neurology, dermatology, ophthalmology and E.N.T. Surgery; in keeping with these developments the name ‘Asylum’ was replaced by the more appropriate ‘State Hospital and Home’. Shortly thereafter, the name of the district was changed from Rookwood to Lidcombe. The ensuing fifty years saw considerable expansion of the institution without much direction and it was not until the mid-1960s that decisions were taken to establish a comprehensive geriatric service, to define a region for which the Hospital would be primarily responsible and to upgrade the medical, surgical and diagnostic services by the appointment of salaried specialists in appropriate areas.
More recent developments have included the establishment of Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Clinical Neurophysiology, the opening of the head injury unit, the establishment of the renal dialysis service, the establishment of a Department of Community Services, the expansion of the psychiatry service, the commencement of the cardiac assessment and rehabilitation programme and the establishment of a vascular unit. Concurrent with these service developments, the Hospital’s involvement in undergraduate teaching has been expanded. A clinical school for medical students from the University of Sydney was established in May 1976, and student units in social work (in conjunction with the University of N.S.W.) and in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing and speech therapy (in conjunction with the Cumberland College of Health Sciences) are now operating.
The Hospital’s earliest association with the University of Sydney Medical School dates back to 1964 when, for a period of about two years, additional tutorials in Clinical Surgery were organized for groups of students attached to the clinical school at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. This initial association with the University lapsed with the resignation of the hospital’s full-time Staff Surgeon, J. E. Moulton, and several years were to pass before the association was reestablished with the provision of tutorials in neurology and ophthalmology. At this time, the Hospital’s facilities were also made available for the conduct of deferred examinations in clinical medicine and clinical surgery.
These early associations were relatively informal and in February 1970, the Hospital’s then Medical Superintendent, G. R. Andrews, commenced discussions with Professors C. R. B. Blackburn, J. Loewenthal and F. R. Magarey with the specific aims of introducing the teaching of geriatrics into the undergraduate curriculum and of placing clinical teaching at Lidcombe on a more formal basis. Both these objectives were achieved. In September 1970, lectures in geriatrics were given to fifth year students during their course in Social and Preventive Medicine, and in June 1971, Senate approval was given for the recognition of Lidcombe as a Special Affiliated Teaching Hospital.
Further expansion of clinical teaching at Lidcombe took place in 1972, following a request from the Warden of the Clinical School at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital to make use of the Hospital’s facilities for fourth-year students. In February 1972, tutorials in geriatrics, chronic disease and rehabilitation medicine were commenced, and in June 1972, tutorials in surgery for final-year students were also commenced.
This arrangement continued until 1975 when, with the impending entry of ‘new curriculum’ students into their clinical years, a decision was taken by the Faculty of Medicine to designate Lidcombe as a provisional teaching hospital until June 1978. Thus in 1976, all previous teaching commitments under the old curriculum were dropped and a temporary clinical school was established in May 1976 for the Hospital’s first group of fourteen ‘new curriculum’ students. Following the end of the overlap period of the old and the new curriculum students in 1978, a decision was taken to maintain the clinical school at Lidcombe, and 1982 saw the entry of its seventh group of students and the appointment of two of the hospital’s senior specialists, P. F. Thursby and G. A. Broe, to positions as Clinical Senior Lecturers.
In summary, Lidcombe has functioned for much of its existence as a hospital for chronic diseases, catering particularly for the aged and indigent. However, in contrast to many similar institutions, it also provided most of the necessary acute medical and surgical services. From this base, the Hospital has been developed into a large modern complex providing a wide range of services, and providing clinical instruction for students, including those in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sydney

G. W. Carter

Mater Misericordiae Hospital

2008-03-30T15:07:38Z

Doakaran: New page: The first formal arrangement between the Mater Hospital, North Sydney, and the University of Sydney involving undergraduate medical student teaching, was entered into in 1966. In that year...

The first formal arrangement between the Mater Hospital, North Sydney, and the University of Sydney involving undergraduate medical student teaching, was entered into in 1966. In that year, the Hospital was approached by the Sydney University Medical Society and agreed to accept four fifth-year students for their unallocated term, commencing 1 September 1966 and ending on 28 February in the following year. Quite coincidentally, the General Superintendent, John Westphalen, had proposed to the Advisory Board of the Hospital in 1966 that a dialogue be initiated with the University of Sydney concerning affiliation of the Mater as a teaching hospital.
With the approval of the Board and the encouragement of the Sisters of Mercy, innovative proposals were canvassed at length with the then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor John Loewenthal, in December of that year. In 1967, representatives of the Hospital met formally with Professor Loewenthal. A prospective teaching status for the Mater Hospital was discussed, based upon an innovative and unique arrangement that was subsequently implemented with bilaterally recognized success. In brief, singular features of the proposal were as follows:
1. The Mater would not, in the interests of economy, establish its own separate clinical school. It would, rather, work through and in conjunction with the already-established clinical school at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
2. Beds available in the contiguous Private Hospital would be utilized for teaching purposes.
3. Student allocation to the Hospital would be on a rotating basis so that all students of the Royal North Shore Hospital Clinical School would receive maximum exposure to the combined teaching facilities.
4. To control these arrangements, the Mater Hospital would work through the University Board of Studies already operating at the Royal North Shore Hospital.
5. All teaching arrangements and student allocations would be organized through the Warden of the Clinical School of the Royal North Shore Hospital, rather than be arranged separately at the Mater.
6. In all other respects, the Hospital would relate to the University, as do other teaching hospitals, through a conjoint University/Hospital Board.
After reaching agreement with the Royal North Shore Hospital, the Mater received a formal invitation from the Senate of the University to affiliate as a general teaching hospital in August 1968; teaching commenced in 1969 with initial numbers divided into two groups of seven students each on a rotating basis. From those beginnings, the coordinated Mater/Royal North Shore teaching nexus moved from success to success, confirmed by consistently positive feedback from students. This undergraduate teaching model is unique, insofar as we know, throughout Australia, and has since developed to encompass students in all clinical years. Special training in rehabilitation and geriatrics has been added, and some six to twelve overseas undergraduates are placed at the Mater each year for ‘live-in’ training.
The ongoing success of the integrated programme was in significant part due to the enthusiasm and cooperation of the Wardens of the Clinical School at Royal North Shore Hospital and their Clinical Supervisors: first I. Monk, then G. E. Bauer. To those people were joined Professor D. W. Piper (Medicine), Professor T. S. Reeve (Surgery), and the late Associate Professor G. E. Coupland. These three men, in particular, enthusiastically developed academic arrangements and monitored teaching standards.
With the closure of the public beds at the Hospital, the role of the Mater and its relationship to the Faculty of Medicine will change. For the future, the Mater looks forward to a continuing role in medical education through its private beds. It is fortuitous, but proper, that this brief history of an era and a successful cost-effective teaching innovation be recorded in such a historical document as the Centenary Book, marking the hundredth birthday of Sydney University Medical School.

J. B. Westphalen

Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington

2008-03-30T15:07:33Z

Doakaran: New page: In 1820, seven years after the foundation of the Benevolent Society under the approbation of Governor Macquarie, ‘a suitable plain building near the Turnpike House’ was erected on port...

In 1820, seven years after the foundation of the Benevolent Society under the approbation of Governor Macquarie, ‘a suitable plain building near the Turnpike House’ was erected on portion of the site now occupied by the Central Railway Station and the inscription on the foundation stone, which is still preserved at the Royal Hospital for Women, reads: ‘This asylum for the poor, blind, aged and infirm was erected in 1820, L. Macquarie Esquire being Governor’.
The first completed portion provided for fifty to sixty persons, but additions were made at different periods in accordance with the increasing demands for accommodation. A development that was destined to have far-reaching effects on the direction of the Benevolent Society into maternity care was the formation on 4 August 1820 of a committee of ladies under the chairmanship of Mrs Macquarie, wife of the then Governor of New South Wales. This committee was the first voluntary organization in the Colony of New South Wales. Its objectives were ‘for the poor married women during their confinement … so that the deserving and virtuous poor, in that hour of trial may experience all the sympathy and relief which female tenderness and commiseration can administer’.
The first accouchement under their care took place in October 1820, and by June 1821, it is recorded in the annual report of the Benevolent Society that six mothers had been confined. Thus began an aspect of institutional maternity care which has continued to the present time. In 1866 it was reported that 129 mothers were confined in the Society’s asylum where a newly completed northern wing of the building was named the ‘Lying-in Hospital of New South Wales’. In 1870 the Society’s annual report states ‘one of the nurses sent by Miss Nightingale from England’ was appointed Matron, and that, in 1877, the Hospital was constituted as a training school for midwives and nurses. So commenced the first formal, organized educational programme for pupil midwives in N.S.W. In the year 1888, medical students attended for obstetric training at the Lying-in Hospital, it being recognized for training purposes by the University of Sydney and Universities in the other Colonies (now States).
In 1901, the Benevolent Asylum and the Lying-in Hospital, an historic block of buildings so long a landmark which the Benevolent Society had occupied for over eighty years, were resumed. The outcome was the dispersal of the various activities of the Society and the acquisition in 1901, of property of seven acres on the hills of Paddington. The property was the home of a man called Dean; his house became the Hospital for Women, Paddington, until a new building was erected and was opened by Lady Northcote, wife of the third Governor General of Australia, on 3 May 1905. It was also in this year that the hospital was granted the title of ‘Royal’ under the patronage of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (4 August 1904).
In 1906 a department for the welfare of infants, to which mothers could bring their babies for consultation and advice, was established. So the first baby health care clinic in Australia was initiated as an aspect of maternity care. On 24 August 1912, an antenatal clinic was established at the Hospital by J. C. Windeyer (later Professor). This may seem a commonplace happening to us today, but it was, in fact, historic. It was a major pioneering effort in promoting the welfare of mothers and babies and has functioned continuously for some sixty-nine years since its establishment — the longest continuous period of service of an antenatal clinic in the British Commonwealth.
From these early times to the present day, many of the outstanding achievements of the Royal Hospital for Women as a modern and leading obstetric and gynaecological hospital, both in education and research, were related to its association with the University of Sydney as a teaching hospital.
Among the Medical Officers of the Benevolent Asylum in its early days are several whose names feature prominently in the history of the Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University. These include William Bland (see Chapter 1), Arthur Renwick (q.v.) and J. C. Windeyer (see Chapters 5 and 8). Bland was the Society’s first Medical Officer (1820–1830) and, after his retirement from this full-time position, became its Gratuitous Surgeon (1830–1863). Renwick served as its Honorary Medical Officer from 1862 to 1877. In 1904, J. C. Windeyer was appointed to the honorary medical staff of the Royal Hospital for Women; he later held the first Chair of Obstetrics in the University of Sydney from 1925. He was followed as Professor by B. T. Mayes in 1941, also an Honorary Medical Officer at the Royal Hospital for Women.
With the establishment of the Medical School at the University of New South Wales, the Hospital ceased to be associated with the University of Sydney and now serves as a teaching hospital for the second Medical School.

J. Greenwell

Women's Hospital, Crown Street

2008-03-30T15:07:30Z

Doakaran: New page: The Women’s Hospital was founded in 1893 in a four-roomed house in Hay Street and moved to its present site in 1897. On 13 August 1895, the first duly constituted Board of the Women’s ...

The Women’s Hospital was founded in 1893 in a four-roomed house in Hay Street and moved to its present site in 1897.
On 13 August 1895, the first duly constituted Board of the Women’s Hospital adopted as its working plan, a simple set of objectives which today remain substantially unchanged, the fourth of these being ‘Training School where obstetrical nursing in all its branches may be taught and certificates of efficiency granted’. This objective was enlarged to include the training of medical students as part of their medical course and practitioners by means of special postgraduate courses.
Since 1900 ‘Crown Street’ has been a teaching hospital in obstetrics for medical undergraduates of the University of Sydney. In 1921, when there were 846 births at the Hospital, the Annual Report recorded:
INVALUABLE EXPERIENCE
Fifth year Medical Students continue to avail themselves of practical instruction in midwifery, the term prescribed by the University being three weeks. Students, recognising the value of this arrangement, often apply for a second term, but, unfortunately, until additional patients can be accommodated, this cannot always be arranged and the University has now requested the Hospital to still further increase the number of students to be taken next year. This matter vitally affects every citizen who has occasion to call in the services of an Obstetrician, and he will recognise how essential it is in the interests of young Australia and the community generally, for students and Medical Officer to have sound practical experience in this branch of Medicine.
In 1982 ‘Crown Street’ was the major teaching unit in Obstetrics, teaching some eighty students annually; 4,038 babies were born at the hospital. It is noteworthy that the 1,403 public births provided the greatest opportunity for tuition on deliveries available in New South Wales.
In 1981 there were 3,590 public inpatients as well as 13,333 public outpatients — significant statistics in the teaching programme of this internationally recognized maternity hospital. Amongst other achievements ‘Crown Street’ was the first hospital outside the United States to have a foetal cardiac monitor and pioneered its use in Australia; the first maternity hospital to have local anaesthesia for caesarian sections; the first hospital to have a fertility clinic in Australia and New Zealand; the first to handle the problems of ‘childbirth fever’.
Since 1965 an Associate Professor has been based at the hospital. Clinical Lecturers in Obstetrics and Gynaecology are recommended for appointment by the Board of Medical Studies. To date over 3,500 students have been taught at ‘Crown Street’.
The recent decision by the State Government to close this Hospital with its standing of ninety years will be a loss to the women of N.S.W. and an irreplaceable loss to the teaching of Obstetrics for years to come.

L. Valkenburg

Royal North Shore Hospital

2008-03-26T20:47:58Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In the 1880s a population of some 20,000 lived in relative isolation on the North Shore of Sydney. Any who became ill faced a long and hazardous journey by dray and punt to the city for attention. In 1885, Mr Frank Treatt, the local magistrate, and his wife were instrumental in establishing a committee of citizens to plan for a hospital and to raise funds.

A successful Industrial Exhibition and public appeals were held; the first Hospital Committee was formed in 1886. On 18 June 1887 the foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes, then the Colonial Secretary, on a site on the North Willoughby Road, St Leonards (now Crows Nest). The land had been given by Mr David Berry, one of a family of Scottish merchants who grew produce in the Shoalhaven area, transporting it to Sydney by coastal boat and landing at a site which now bears his name — Berry’s Bay — which was also in the large municipality of St Leonards. It was subsequently divided into districts, the main one becoming North Sydney.

On Monday 18 June 1888, the North Shore Cottage Hospital, with fourteen beds and a nursing staff of five, opened ‘for the reception of accident patients and illness occurring among the poor of the district’. The total cost, including the land, had been £2,960.

By the turn of the century the railway from Hornsby to St Leonards had been completed, the population had grown to 56,000 and, although enlarged twice, the Hospital could not meet the demands made on it. As has happened many times since, funds and facilities were insufficient and there was frequent public outcry due to patients being refused admission or being accommodated in sub-standard conditions. Public indignation reached its peak when it was found that a tent had been erected in the grounds to take the overflow.
Part of the Gore Hill Reserve, half a mile to the west of the original site, was set aside to build a new hospital capable of expansion to meet future needs. It is of interest that the area derived its name from William Gore, who died there, ‘in exile’, in 1845. He had come to Australia in 1806 as Provost-Marshal to Governor Bligh. He was prominent in the arrest of Captain John Macarthur which led to the revolt by the NSW Corps and subsequent imprisonment of Bligh.

A public competition was held for a design for the new hospital. The winning plan, setting a pattern so familiar in later years, provided for the Hospital to be built in stages so as to comprise five two-storey pavilion wards. ‘The buildings are carried out in brick with stone dressings, the design being Renaissance and the dressing sparingly used on the score of expense, but with architectural effect.’ Given the styling Royal<ref>It is interesting to note that the Royal North Shore Hospital acquired the appellation “Royal” on 11 September 1902, some months before Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was granted the same honour (announced in November 1902, but formally notified on 8 January 1903). Soon afterwards, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (4 January 1904) and the Royal Hospital for Women (4 August 1904) also followed suit. It seems possible that the “presumption” of the North Shore Hospital, then only just emerging from its cottage hospital days, irritated Anderson Stuart, newly appointed as Chairman of the Prince Alfred Board, and induced him to seek similar status for the University Hospital. His move then seems to have precipitated the other two Hospitals into action. Since that time, royal patronage of public hospitals in N.S.W. has also been extended to the Royal South Sydney (21 December 1917), the Royal Newcastle, (18 February 1949) and the Royal Ryde Rehabilitation (27 December 1978) Hospitals. (J.A.Y.)</ref> by King Edward VII on 11 September 1902, following his Coronation, the new forty-eight-bed ‘Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney’ opened on its present site on 10 June 1903.

The original Cottage Hospital, the site of which now faces Willoughby Road, Crows Nest, and is bounded by Holterman and Albany Streets, was subsequently purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. In 1906 they began there the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, which was also later to move to the highway to allow for expansion. The two Hospitals became formally associated in 1969 when the Mater became an affiliated Teaching Hospital with the Royal North Shore. This association has been most amicable and successful and of great value to the Sydney University’s Medical Faculty in being able to provide adequate clinical teaching during a most difficult era.

The original plan was followed until the time of the First World War when the Hospital, about half-completed, comprised 132 beds. This was still inadequate to meet the needs of the expanding population, but a proposed new six-storey block was an early casualty of the War. Between the Wars there were many developments, to prove of great importance later. A separate outdoor patients’ block was completed, a maternity block was built, a research institute was established, pioneering clinics for chest diseases and for the treatment of diabetes were set up, together with a clinic to enable Sister Elizabeth Kenny to introduce her methods for treatment of infantile paralysis. The bed capacity reached 354. But it was all rather haphazard and disrupted by the depression, giving the scattered and varied buildings which provide their own problems today. Fortunately, additional land was regularly acquired for expansion, so this has never proved a big problem. There were five major land allocations which, with numerous small blocks added, now total some thirty-five acres.

Following the Second World War consideration was being given to the establishment of additional clinical schools. Sir Norman Nock (who was to serve twenty-eight years as the Hospital’s Chairman), strongly believed that Royal North Shore was in an ideal position to be one of these new clinical schools. He, with the Board, planned and worked hard to this end, appointing a committee to prepare for such a development. The Chairman of this committee was W. Wilson Ingram, then an established Macquarie Street physician, who had been a leading force behind many of the improvements between the two wars. He was to become the first Clinical Lecturer and to be Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies for twenty-six years.

The outcome was that the Senate of the University, on 14 October 1946, resolved to invite the Board to ‘agree to the Hospital being recognised as a Clinical School for the instruction of Medical Undergraduates’. The Board accepted in November 1946 and immediately implemented another decision, taken in accordance with the recommendations of a public enquiry held in 1939, that the Chief Executive Officer should be a medical graduate. Wallace Freeborn, who was a Sydney graduate, commenced in this position on 10 December 1946. He was one of the few Australians appropriately qualified, having had extensive postgraduate training in London hospitals during the 1920s and 1930s and was established as a specialist in Harley Street at the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War he held various positions of command, finally that of Commanding Officer in a hospital ship. He immediately began organizing Royal North Shore along the lines of a London teaching hospital and introduced the registrar system of staffing and postgraduate training.

These three outstanding men (Nock, Freeborn and Ingram), whose names are now perpetuated within the Hospital, went on to play major roles in the future development of Royal North Shore, after the official inauguration of the Clinical School on 15 March 1948 by the Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn.

Starting with forty students, the total reached 128 in 1950 and thereafter fluctuated until it reached a peak of 210 in 1977. As a district hospital emerging from the neglect of the war years, patient facilities were far from adequate and of course facilities for students were nil. There were many promises but very little materialized, so that student accommodation was inadequate and overcrowded for years.

The new acute ward block, promised as part of the teaching hospital development, was similarly slow to materialize and the haphazard development of clinical facilities continued during the 1950s. A first-class thoracic unit had been completed in the Commonwealth Anti-T.B. campaign and with it an excellent nurses’ home, but otherwise temporary prefabricated units, converted cottages and other forms of makeshift took the available beds to 548, before finance and permission to proceed finally came. The four-stage development programme, approved in 1958, which included a 600-bed multi-storey ward block, took some twenty years to complete. Now, following some consequential re-organization of older facilities, the total number of beds available is 920.

The first part of the planned and long-promised ‘education block’ was not built until 1963, following the advent of the Australian University Commission’s triennial system of grants. Under this system twelve building projects were approved over five triennia. These provided: a clinical teaching block with a main lecture theatre and a library; a students’ amenities block and students’ residence joined by common rooms; various tutorial and demonstration rooms; and a five-level Professorial block adjacent to the Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

The last of these projects, the extension of the library, which completed the top floor of the teaching block, was finished in 1978. In a unique historical event, W. Wilson Ingram participated in his last official function for the Hospital when he unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark its completion on 6 December 1978, which was coincidentally his 90th birthday.

The first Sub-Professorial units were established with Associate Professor Reeve in Surgery in 1962, and Associate Professor Piper in Medicine in 1963. Appropriately both of these men, who have contributed so much to the teaching standards of the Clinical School, were appointed the first Professors when full Chairs were established, in Medicine in 1972 and Surgery in 1973. A Chair in Orthopaedics and Traumatic Surgery was established in 1970 and is held by T. K. F. Taylor, and a Chair in Rheumatology was filled in 1983 by P. M. Brooks.

Thus the fourteen-bed Cottage Hospital, founded by the local community to serve the residents of the North Shore, after nearly one hundred years has evolved into a major referral hospital of 920 beds, serving the whole Northern Metropolitan Region and beyond. Now one of the most modern hospitals in the country, it sets and pursues the highest possible standards and has been constantly stimulated in this through its valuable and esteemed status as a clinical school of the University of Sydney. Its history shows that the ‘North Shore’ Hospital has had leaders of outstanding vision and remarkable foresight who have taken far-reaching decisions and vigorously pursued them through the desperate straits of war, depression, inflation and periodic neglect to bring this about. Its founders and subsequent leaders may be justifiably proud of its position and standing today, as it too nears its centenary.

Source: I. R. Vanderfield, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

==References==
<references />

Royal North Shore Hospital

2008-03-26T20:43:17Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In the 1880s a population of some 20,000 lived in relative isolation on the North Shore of Sydney. Any who became ill faced a long and hazardous journey by dray and punt to the city for attention. In 1885, Mr Frank Treatt, the local magistrate, and his wife were instrumental in establishing a committee of citizens to plan for a hospital and to raise funds.

A successful Industrial Exhibition and public appeals were held; the first Hospital Committee was formed in 1886. On 18 June 1887 the foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes, then the Colonial Secretary, on a site on the North Willoughby Road, St Leonards (now Crows Nest). The land had been given by Mr David Berry, one of a family of Scottish merchants who grew produce in the Shoalhaven area, transporting it to Sydney by coastal boat and landing at a site which now bears his name — Berry’s Bay — which was also in the large municipality of St Leonards. It was subsequently divided into districts, the main one becoming North Sydney.

On Monday 18 June 1888, the North Shore Cottage Hospital, with fourteen beds and a nursing staff of five, opened ‘for the reception of accident patients and illness occurring among the poor of the district’. The total cost, including the land, had been £2,960.

By the turn of the century the railway from Hornsby to St Leonards had been completed, the population had grown to 56,000 and, although enlarged twice, the Hospital could not meet the demands made on it. As has happened many times since, funds and facilities were insufficient and there was frequent public outcry due to patients being refused admission or being accommodated in sub-standard conditions. Public indignation reached its peak when it was found that a tent had been erected in the grounds to take the overflow.
Part of the Gore Hill Reserve, half a mile to the west of the original site, was set aside to build a new hospital capable of expansion to meet future needs. It is of interest that the area derived its name from William Gore, who died there, ‘in exile’, in 1845. He had come to Australia in 1806 as Provost-Marshal to Governor Bligh. He was prominent in the arrest of Captain John Macarthur which led to the revolt by the NSW Corps and subsequent imprisonment of Bligh.

A public competition was held for a design for the new hospital. The winning plan, setting a pattern so familiar in later years, provided for the Hospital to be built in stages so as to comprise five two-storey pavilion wards. ‘The buildings are carried out in brick with stone dressings, the design being Renaissance and the dressing sparingly used on the score of expense, but with architectural effect.’ Given the styling Royal1 by King Edward VII on 11 September 1902, following his Coronation, the new forty-eight-bed ‘Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney’ opened on its present site on 10 June 1903.

The original Cottage Hospital, the site of which now faces Willoughby Road, Crows Nest, and is bounded by Holterman and Albany Streets, was subsequently purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. In 1906 they began there the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, which was also later to move to the highway to allow for expansion. The two Hospitals became formally associated in 1969 when the Mater became an affiliated Teaching Hospital with the Royal North Shore. This association has been most amicable and successful and of great value to the Sydney University’s Medical Faculty in being able to provide adequate clinical teaching during a most difficult era.

The original plan was followed until the time of the First World War when the Hospital, about half-completed, comprised 132 beds. This was still inadequate to meet the needs of the expanding population, but a proposed new six-storey block was an early casualty of the War. Between the Wars there were many developments, to prove of great importance later. A separate outdoor patients’ block was completed, a maternity block was built, a research institute was established, pioneering clinics for chest diseases and for the treatment of diabetes were set up, together with a clinic to enable Sister Elizabeth Kenny to introduce her methods for treatment of infantile paralysis. The bed capacity reached 354. But it was all rather haphazard and disrupted by the depression, giving the scattered and varied buildings which provide their own problems today. Fortunately, additional land was regularly acquired for expansion, so this has never proved a big problem. There were five major land allocations which, with numerous small blocks added, now total some thirty-five acres.

Following the Second World War consideration was being given to the establishment of additional clinical schools. Sir Norman Nock (who was to serve twenty-eight years as the Hospital’s Chairman), strongly believed that Royal North Shore was in an ideal position to be one of these new clinical schools. He, with the Board, planned and worked hard to this end, appointing a committee to prepare for such a development. The Chairman of this committee was W. Wilson Ingram, then an established Macquarie Street physician, who had been a leading force behind many of the improvements between the two wars. He was to become the first Clinical Lecturer and to be Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies for twenty-six years.

The outcome was that the Senate of the University, on 14 October 1946, resolved to invite the Board to ‘agree to the Hospital being recognised as a Clinical School for the instruction of Medical Undergraduates’. The Board accepted in November 1946 and immediately implemented another decision, taken in accordance with the recommendations of a public enquiry held in 1939, that the Chief Executive Officer should be a medical graduate. Wallace Freeborn, who was a Sydney graduate, commenced in this position on 10 December 1946. He was one of the few Australians appropriately qualified, having had extensive postgraduate training in London hospitals during the 1920s and 1930s and was established as a specialist in Harley Street at the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War he held various positions of command, finally that of Commanding Officer in a hospital ship. He immediately began organizing Royal North Shore along the lines of a London teaching hospital and introduced the registrar system of staffing and postgraduate training.

These three outstanding men (Nock, Freeborn and Ingram), whose names are now perpetuated within the Hospital, went on to play major roles in the future development of Royal North Shore, after the official inauguration of the Clinical School on 15 March 1948 by the Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn.

Starting with forty students, the total reached 128 in 1950 and thereafter fluctuated until it reached a peak of 210 in 1977. As a district hospital emerging from the neglect of the war years, patient facilities were far from adequate and of course facilities for students were nil. There were many promises but very little materialized, so that student accommodation was inadequate and overcrowded for years.

The new acute ward block, promised as part of the teaching hospital development, was similarly slow to materialize and the haphazard development of clinical facilities continued during the 1950s. A first-class thoracic unit had been completed in the Commonwealth Anti-T.B. campaign and with it an excellent nurses’ home, but otherwise temporary prefabricated units, converted cottages and other forms of makeshift took the available beds to 548, before finance and permission to proceed finally came. The four-stage development programme, approved in 1958, which included a 600-bed multi-storey ward block, took some twenty years to complete. Now, following some consequential re-organization of older facilities, the total number of beds available is 920.

The first part of the planned and long-promised ‘education block’ was not built until 1963, following the advent of the Australian University Commission’s triennial system of grants. Under this system twelve building projects were approved over five triennia. These provided: a clinical teaching block with a main lecture theatre and a library; a students’ amenities block and students’ residence joined by common rooms; various tutorial and demonstration rooms; and a five-level Professorial block adjacent to the Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

The last of these projects, the extension of the library, which completed the top floor of the teaching block, was finished in 1978. In a unique historical event, W. Wilson Ingram participated in his last official function for the Hospital when he unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark its completion on 6 December 1978, which was coincidentally his 90th birthday.

The first Sub-Professorial units were established with Associate Professor Reeve in Surgery in 1962, and Associate Professor Piper in Medicine in 1963. Appropriately both of these men, who have contributed so much to the teaching standards of the Clinical School, were appointed the first Professors when full Chairs were established, in Medicine in 1972 and Surgery in 1973. A Chair in Orthopaedics and Traumatic Surgery was established in 1970 and is held by T. K. F. Taylor, and a Chair in Rheumatology was filled in 1983 by P. M. Brooks.

Thus the fourteen-bed Cottage Hospital, founded by the local community to serve the residents of the North Shore, after nearly one hundred years has evolved into a major referral hospital of 920 beds, serving the whole Northern Metropolitan Region and beyond. Now one of the most modern hospitals in the country, it sets and pursues the highest possible standards and has been constantly stimulated in this through its valuable and esteemed status as a clinical school of the University of Sydney. Its history shows that the ‘North Shore’ Hospital has had leaders of outstanding vision and remarkable foresight who have taken far-reaching decisions and vigorously pursued them through the desperate straits of war, depression, inflation and periodic neglect to bring this about. Its founders and subsequent leaders may be justifiably proud of its position and standing today, as it too nears its centenary.

1It is interesting to note that the Royal North Shore Hospital acquired the appellation “Royal” on 11 September 1902, some months before Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was granted the same honour (announced in November 1902, but formally notified on 8 January 1903). Soon afterwards, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (4 January 1904) and the Royal Hospital for Women (4 August 1904) also followed suit. It seems possible that the “presumption” of the North Shore Hospital, then only just emerging from its cottage hospital days, irritated Anderson Stuart, newly appointed as Chairman of the Prince Alfred Board, and induced him to seek similar status for the University Hospital. His move then seems to have precipitated the other two Hospitals into action. Since that time, royal patronage of public hospitals in N.S.W. has also been extended to the Royal South Sydney (21 December 1917), the Royal Newcastle, (18 February 1949) and the Royal Ryde Rehabilitation (27 December 1978) Hospitals. (J.A.Y.)

Source: I. R. Vanderfield, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Royal North Shore Hospital

2008-03-26T20:43:00Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals In the 1880s a population of some 20,000 lived in relative isolation on the North Shore of Sydney. Any who became ill faced a long and haza...

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In the 1880s a population of some 20,000 lived in relative isolation on the North Shore of Sydney. Any who became ill faced a long and hazardous journey by dray and punt to the city for attention. In 1885, Mr Frank Treatt, the local magistrate, and his wife were instrumental in establishing a committee of citizens to plan for a hospital and to raise funds.

A successful Industrial Exhibition and public appeals were held; the first Hospital Committee was formed in 1886. On 18 June 1887 the foundation stone was laid by Sir Henry Parkes, then the Colonial Secretary, on a site on the North Willoughby Road, St Leonards (now Crows Nest). The land had been given by Mr David Berry, one of a family of Scottish merchants who grew produce in the Shoalhaven area, transporting it to Sydney by coastal boat and landing at a site which now bears his name — Berry’s Bay — which was also in the large municipality of St Leonards. It was subsequently divided into districts, the main one becoming North Sydney.

On Monday 18 June 1888, the North Shore Cottage Hospital, with fourteen beds and a nursing staff of five, opened ‘for the reception of accident patients and illness occurring among the poor of the district’. The total cost, including the land, had been £2,960.

By the turn of the century the railway from Hornsby to St Leonards had been completed, the population had grown to 56,000 and, although enlarged twice, the Hospital could not meet the demands made on it. As has happened many times since, funds and facilities were insufficient and there was frequent public outcry due to patients being refused admission or being accommodated in sub-standard conditions. Public indignation reached its peak when it was found that a tent had been erected in the grounds to take the overflow.
Part of the Gore Hill Reserve, half a mile to the west of the original site, was set aside to build a new hospital capable of expansion to meet future needs. It is of interest that the area derived its name from William Gore, who died there, ‘in exile’, in 1845. He had come to Australia in 1806 as Provost-Marshal to Governor Bligh. He was prominent in the arrest of Captain John Macarthur which led to the revolt by the NSW Corps and subsequent imprisonment of Bligh.

A public competition was held for a design for the new hospital. The winning plan, setting a pattern so familiar in later years, provided for the Hospital to be built in stages so as to comprise five two-storey pavilion wards. ‘The buildings are carried out in brick with stone dressings, the design being Renaissance and the dressing sparingly used on the score of expense, but with architectural effect.’ Given the styling Royal1 by King Edward VII on 11 September 1902, following his Coronation, the new forty-eight-bed ‘Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney’ opened on its present site on 10 June 1903.

The original Cottage Hospital, the site of which now faces Willoughby Road, Crows Nest, and is bounded by Holterman and Albany Streets, was subsequently purchased by the Sisters of Mercy. In 1906 they began there the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, which was also later to move to the highway to allow for expansion. The two Hospitals became formally associated in 1969 when the Mater became an affiliated Teaching Hospital with the Royal North Shore. This association has been most amicable and successful and of great value to the Sydney University’s Medical Faculty in being able to provide adequate clinical teaching during a most difficult era.

The original plan was followed until the time of the First World War when the Hospital, about half-completed, comprised 132 beds. This was still inadequate to meet the needs of the expanding population, but a proposed new six-storey block was an early casualty of the War. Between the Wars there were many developments, to prove of great importance later. A separate outdoor patients’ block was completed, a maternity block was built, a research institute was established, pioneering clinics for chest diseases and for the treatment of diabetes were set up, together with a clinic to enable Sister Elizabeth Kenny to introduce her methods for treatment of infantile paralysis. The bed capacity reached 354. But it was all rather haphazard and disrupted by the depression, giving the scattered and varied buildings which provide their own problems today. Fortunately, additional land was regularly acquired for expansion, so this has never proved a big problem. There were five major land allocations which, with numerous small blocks added, now total some thirty-five acres.

Following the Second World War consideration was being given to the establishment of additional clinical schools. Sir Norman Nock (who was to serve twenty-eight years as the Hospital’s Chairman), strongly believed that Royal North Shore was in an ideal position to be one of these new clinical schools. He, with the Board, planned and worked hard to this end, appointing a committee to prepare for such a development. The Chairman of this committee was W. Wilson Ingram, then an established Macquarie Street physician, who had been a leading force behind many of the improvements between the two wars. He was to become the first Clinical Lecturer and to be Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies for twenty-six years.

The outcome was that the Senate of the University, on 14 October 1946, resolved to invite the Board to ‘agree to the Hospital being recognised as a Clinical School for the instruction of Medical Undergraduates’. The Board accepted in November 1946 and immediately implemented another decision, taken in accordance with the recommendations of a public enquiry held in 1939, that the Chief Executive Officer should be a medical graduate. Wallace Freeborn, who was a Sydney graduate, commenced in this position on 10 December 1946. He was one of the few Australians appropriately qualified, having had extensive postgraduate training in London hospitals during the 1920s and 1930s and was established as a specialist in Harley Street at the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War he held various positions of command, finally that of Commanding Officer in a hospital ship. He immediately began organizing Royal North Shore along the lines of a London teaching hospital and introduced the registrar system of staffing and postgraduate training.

These three outstanding men (Nock, Freeborn and Ingram), whose names are now perpetuated within the Hospital, went on to play major roles in the future development of Royal North Shore, after the official inauguration of the Clinical School on 15 March 1948 by the Chancellor Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn.

Starting with forty students, the total reached 128 in 1950 and thereafter fluctuated until it reached a peak of 210 in 1977. As a district hospital emerging from the neglect of the war years, patient facilities were far from adequate and of course facilities for students were nil. There were many promises but very little materialized, so that student accommodation was inadequate and overcrowded for years.

The new acute ward block, promised as part of the teaching hospital development, was similarly slow to materialize and the haphazard development of clinical facilities continued during the 1950s. A first-class thoracic unit had been completed in the Commonwealth Anti-T.B. campaign and with it an excellent nurses’ home, but otherwise temporary prefabricated units, converted cottages and other forms of makeshift took the available beds to 548, before finance and permission to proceed finally came. The four-stage development programme, approved in 1958, which included a 600-bed multi-storey ward block, took some twenty years to complete. Now, following some consequential re-organization of older facilities, the total number of beds available is 920.

The first part of the planned and long-promised ‘education block’ was not built until 1963, following the advent of the Australian University Commission’s triennial system of grants. Under this system twelve building projects were approved over five triennia. These provided: a clinical teaching block with a main lecture theatre and a library; a students’ amenities block and students’ residence joined by common rooms; various tutorial and demonstration rooms; and a five-level Professorial block adjacent to the Kolling Institute of Medical Research.

The last of these projects, the extension of the library, which completed the top floor of the teaching block, was finished in 1978. In a unique historical event, W. Wilson Ingram participated in his last official function for the Hospital when he unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark its completion on 6 December 1978, which was coincidentally his 90th birthday.

The first Sub-Professorial units were established with Associate Professor Reeve in Surgery in 1962, and Associate Professor Piper in Medicine in 1963. Appropriately both of these men, who have contributed so much to the teaching standards of the Clinical School, were appointed the first Professors when full Chairs were established, in Medicine in 1972 and Surgery in 1973. A Chair in Orthopaedics and Traumatic Surgery was established in 1970 and is held by T. K. F. Taylor, and a Chair in Rheumatology was filled in 1983 by P. M. Brooks.

Thus the fourteen-bed Cottage Hospital, founded by the local community to serve the residents of the North Shore, after nearly one hundred years has evolved into a major referral hospital of 920 beds, serving the whole Northern Metropolitan Region and beyond. Now one of the most modern hospitals in the country, it sets and pursues the highest possible standards and has been constantly stimulated in this through its valuable and esteemed status as a clinical school of the University of Sydney. Its history shows that the ‘North Shore’ Hospital has had leaders of outstanding vision and remarkable foresight who have taken far-reaching decisions and vigorously pursued them through the desperate straits of war, depression, inflation and periodic neglect to bring this about. Its founders and subsequent leaders may be justifiably proud of its position and standing today, as it too nears its centenary.

1It is interesting to note that the Royal North Shore Hospital acquired the appellation “Royal” on 11 September 1902, some months before Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was granted the same honour (announced in November 1902, but formally notified on 8 January 1903). Soon afterwards, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (4 January 1904) and the Royal Hospital for Women (4 August 1904) also followed suit. It seems possible that the “presumption” of the North Shore Hospital, then only just emerging from its cottage hospital days, irritated Anderson Stuart, newly appointed as Chairman of the Prince Alfred Board, and induced him to seek similar status for the University Hospital. His move then seems to have precipitated the other two Hospitals into action. Since that time, royal patronage of public hospitals in N.S.W. has also been extended to the Royal South Sydney (21 December 1917), the Royal Newcastle, (18 February 1949) and the Royal Ryde Rehabilitation (27 December 1978) Hospitals. (J.A.Y.)

Source:I. R. Vanderfield, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

St Vincent's Hospital

2008-03-26T20:40:47Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals Founded by the Sisters of Charity in Sydney in 1857, St Vincent’s was intended from the start to be a comprehensive public hospital, open...

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
Founded by the Sisters of Charity in Sydney in 1857, St Vincent’s was intended from the start to be a comprehensive public hospital, open to all regardless of nationality, belief or sex. The poor were to be the main beneficiaries of the subscribers’ offerings. It provided an avenue for medical education prior to the development of the Medical School at the University of Sydney. Practitioners were able, on application, to attend operations performed by the surgeons at the hospital. Several of the St Vincent’s men were notable in medical affairs in the colony, including James Robertson (q.v.), who convened the first meeting of the short-lived Australian Medical Association in 1858, and Frederick Milford (q.v.).

The first twelve years of the Hospital’s existence were spent at Tarmons, Potts Point, the former home of Sir Charles Nicholson (q.v.), Speaker of the Legislative Council and one of the founders of the University, before moving to the present site in Darlinghurst. By 1882 there were one hundred beds and St Vincent’s hoped that it would be able to meet the curriculum requirements of the English licensing bodies ‘at home’. Thus, when the Medical School at the University of Sydney was instituted, St Vincent’s immediately applied to the Senate for recognition as a hospital suitable for clinical instruction. Recognition was granted, but later in the year some members of the Faculty of Medicine recommended withdrawal of the privilege, on the plea that there was no guarantee that the medical officers there would be duly and properly qualified for clinical teaching. This was in spite of the presence of several members of staff who would have long associations with the Faculty, including G. Bennett, J. C. Cox, H. N. MacLaurin and F. Milford (qq.v.). It seems unlikely that religious considerations entered, since it was noted that ‘the men were all Protestants’.

The Senate, disinclined to withdraw recognition of St Vincent’s, requested the Faculty to prepare general rules for regulating the recognition of hospitals, but this the Faculty refused to do. Instead, it asked the Hospital to draw up rules for the appointment of staff and regulations governing the teaching. Despite a rebuke from the Senate, the Faculty adhered to its view and demanded written rules. It was not until 1886 that the Registrar notified the Superioress ‘… that the amended rules are satisfactory.’ Despite this recognition, students were not sent to St Vincent’s from the Medical School until 1923, when it became a full clinical school for clinical training of students1. At this time, the names of many members of staff are familiar from their association with the Faculty, including on the surgical side Sir Alexander MacCormick and Robert Scot Skirving (qq.v.). The first Clinical Lecturer in Medicine was O. A. Diethelm, who held office for twenty-four years, and in Surgery, B. T. Edye (one year) and V. M. Coppleson (over twenty years) (both were later knighted). In 1930, D. I. (later Sir Douglas) Miller became Dean of Studies at St Vincent’s and one year later the timetable was adjusted to correlate the clinical curriculum with the University’s programme of instruction. However, it was not until 1951 that the Hospital provided facilities for final-year examinations.

One notable year was 1964. In it, the Garvan Institute for Medical Research was opened, together with a new clinical school building and residence for medical students. That year also saw the retirement of Miller as Dean of the Clinical School, after more than thirty-four years; his name is perpetuated in the Douglas Miller Lecture Theatre. A Sub-Professorial Department in Medicine was established under the guidance of Associate Professor J. B. Hickie and a similar unit in Surgery was established with G. W. Milton in charge.

A grant for the provision of additional clinical teaching facilities was provided by the Australian Universities Commission in 1965, and a floor was added to the services block to provide full teaching, laboratory and office facilities for the Sub-Professorial Departments. However, in 1966, discussions were commenced which were to result in the change of allegiance of St Vincent’s from the University of Sydney to the newly opened Faculty of Medicine at the University of N.S.W. After lengthy considerations by an advisory board, the medical staff, Universities and Government, it was felt that the experience of St Vincent’s as a teaching hospital was vital to the development of the new Medical School. Thus the last group of students from the University of Sydney entered fourth year in 1968; the following year, the fourth-year group came from the University of N.S.W. With the change, Hickie was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of N.S.W., to remain at St Vincent’s, and Milton was appointed to a Chair in Surgery at the University of Sydney, attached to Sydney Hospital.

The decision to sever the connection between St Vincent’s and the University of Sydney was taken with great reluctance on the part of both institutions. With the graduation early in 1971 of the last forty-four students of the University of Sydney Medical School trained at St Vincent’s, a relationship which had lasted forty-four years was ended.
1Just as St Vincent’s in Dublin was the first hospital administered by an order of Religious Nurses in the English-speaking world to become a teaching institution (1834), so St Vincent’s in Melbourne (1910) and in Sydney (1923) can claim this priority for Australia.

Source: C. O’Carrigan, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Macquarie Hospital

2008-03-26T20:34:52Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals The Macquarie Hospital, formerly known as North Ryde Psychiatric Centre, is situated on forty hectares of land in Cox’s Road, North Ryde...

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]

The Macquarie Hospital, formerly known as North Ryde Psychiatric Centre, is situated on forty hectares of land in Cox’s Road, North Ryde, and is under the control of the Department of Health. Building on the site began in 1956 and the first patients were accepted in January 1959. The first Medical Superintendent was W. Barclay and the current Medical Superintendent is J. A. Thompson.

The Hospital was originally designed to provide special facilities to deal with particular problems that other psychiatric hospitals were not equipped to handle. With the development of regionalization of psychiatric services within the metropolitan area, other psychiatric hospitals opened their own admission centres and Macquarie Hospital became responsible for the care and treatment of those patients living in the Northern Metropolitan Region of Sydney. The Hospital’s function has evolved progressively especially as a result of the expansion of acute psychiatric services in general hospitals.

Macquarie Hospital now comprises wards specializing in an acute admission service, rehabilitation, emotionally disturbed children, intellectually handicapped children, psychogeriatric and medical and surgical patients. The bed capacity is 384 with the majority of patients returning to the community. Further expansion of rehabilitation and psychogeriatric services is expected.

In 1969, the Hospital formalized its association with the University of Sydney, becoming a teaching hospital in Psychiatry. A Sub-Professorial Unit of forty beds (Ward 12) was opened and, adjacent to this are the University offices. On its completion, Ward 12 provided an admission and assessment service for the lower north shore; the Sub-Professorial Unit was initially responsible for inpatient care in Ward 12 as well as for teaching of graduate staff and undergraduates. Its involvement in direct patient care is now finished and it concentrates on teaching and liaison with the various Departments within the Hospital regarding student clinical work and teaching.

The Sub-Professorial Unit staff comprises R. J. Schureck, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, M. McGrath, part-time Clinical Supervisor and two secretarial staff. The University has appointed four Clinical Tutors from the Hospital’s staff, namely G. Pohlen, R. Kaneyson, W. Barclay and P. Doherty. Schureck has been with the Sub-Professorial Unit since its inception.

Medical students are rotated to the Hospital four times a year, spending four weeks there, and combine their rotation to Macquarie Hospital with another rotation either to the Royal North Shore Hospital or the Hornsby and Kuringai Hospital. Most of their clinical work is carried out in two admission wards, with additional visits and tutorials in other aspects of psychiatric care given throughout the Hospital.

A library, separate from the Hospital’s, has been developed and is being expanded.

Source: P.J. Doherty, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

St Margaret's Hospital

2008-03-26T20:29:54Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals St Margaret’s Hospital became a teaching hospital in Obstetrics for the University of Sydney in 1964. The event is commemorated by a pla...

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]

St Margaret’s Hospital became a teaching hospital in Obstetrics for the University of Sydney in 1964. The event is commemorated by a plaque in the entrance foyer unveiled by the then Chancellor, Sir Charles Bickerton Blackburn, in the presence of a distinguished academic and medical gathering. Subsequently, in 1978, the Hospital became a teaching hospital in Gynaecology and now also instructs medical students in neonatal Paediatrics.

The Hospital was founded in 1894 by Gertrude Abbott to care for unmarried mothers; it has been staffed by the Sisters of St Joseph since 1937. Incorporated into the Hospital after its transfer from Elizabeth Street is the building which housed the first St Aloysius College, later used as a school for girls run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

In addition to the Hospital’s role in training about forty medical students each year, it is now recognized as a training hospital for specialist training (one position per year) and for general practitioner training in Obstetrics (eight positions per year). It has for many years played a role in the training of midwives (sixty per year).

The Hospital has a library available to medical students as well as a comprehensive collection of bottle specimens to assist in their training. In 1971 a grant from the Australian Universities Commission enabled the University of Sydney to undertake the extension of two floors, the third and fourth floors of the clinical school, thus providing rooms for eight medical students, a dining room, library and lecture theatre facilities.

Source: W. B. Molloy, "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

Rozelle Hospital

2008-03-26T20:23:15Z

Doakaran: Rozelle Hospital moved to The Rozelle Hospital

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In July 1976, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic and Callan Park Hospital were amalgamated and called the Rozelle Hospital. This Hospital, of 600 beds, now provides a comprehensive psychiatric service to communities in the Southern Metropolitan Health Region. The original building, known as Broughton House, was built in 1840 as a gentleman’s residence on land that had been a Crown grant to John Austen in 1819. This building was first used as a hospital and convalescent home by the army during World War I.

In 1921 new wards were built, and Broughton Hall was established as a psychiatric hospital. Sydney Evan-Jones was appointed as the first Medical Superintendent and also as a member of the teaching staff of the University. Broughton Hall rapidly became an important centre of teaching both in neurology and psychiatry.

In 1956, W. H. Trethowan was appointed to the Chair of Psychiatry and also became Clinical Director of Broughton Hall. These appointments were subsequently held by D. C. Maddison until 1974 and currently by P. J. V. Beumont. These appointments have stimulated further developments at the Hospital, most particularly in the form of teaching programmes for medical undergraduates and post-graduate students training to become psychiatrists. The postgraduate unit for the University was opened at the Hospital in 1957 with Maddison as Senior Lecturer. He was succeeded first by Associate Professor I. Pilowsky and later by Associate Professor G. Johnson.

Teaching facilities were expanded again in 1963 with the building of an enlarged outpatient area, day hospital and the Evan-Jones Lecture Theatre and group-room complex. The undergraduate teaching unit was built in 1973 with sophisticated audio and closed-circuit television facilities, library and classrooms.

The current clinical services comprise four admission wards for acute adult patients, special units for the treatment of alcohol and drug-dependent persons, a brain-damage unit, psychogeriatric units and a comprehensive rehabilitation service for chronically disturbed patients. There are also some six wards for patients who are war veterans. All units of the Hospital have close links with community health centres and other health services within the region.

Source: L. H. Barnes,"Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney.

Rozelle Hospital

2008-03-26T20:01:05Z

Doakaran:

Rozelle Hospital

2008-03-26T20:00:33Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In July 1976, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic and Callan Park Hospital were amalgamated and called the Rozelle Hospital. This Hospital, of 600 beds, now provides a comprehensive psychiatric service to communities in the Southern Metropolitan Health Region. The original building, known as Broughton House, was built in 1840 as a gentleman’s residence on land that had been a Crown grant to John Austen in 1819. This building was first used as a hospital and convalescent home by the army during World War I.

In 1921 new wards were built, and Broughton Hall was established as a psychiatric hospital. Sydney Evan-Jones was appointed as the first Medical Superintendent and also as a member of the teaching staff of the University. Broughton Hall rapidly became an important centre of teaching both in neurology and psychiatry.

In 1956, W. H. Trethowan was appointed to the Chair of Psychiatry and also became Clinical Director of Broughton Hall. These appointments were subsequently held by D. C. Maddison until 1974 and currently by P. J. V. Beumont. These appointments have stimulated further developments at the Hospital, most particularly in the form of teaching programmes for medical undergraduates and post-graduate students training to become psychiatrists. The postgraduate unit for the University was opened at the Hospital in 1957 with Maddison as Senior Lecturer. He was succeeded first by Associate Professor I. Pilowsky and later by Associate Professor G. Johnson.

Teaching facilities were expanded again in 1963 with the building of an enlarged outpatient area, day hospital and the Evan-Jones Lecture Theatre and group-room complex. The undergraduate teaching unit was built in 1973 with sophisticated audio and closed-circuit television facilities, library and classrooms.

The current clinical services comprise four admission wards for acute adult patients, special units for the treatment of alcohol and drug-dependent persons, a brain-damage unit, psychogeriatric units and a comprehensive rehabilitation service for chronically disturbed patients. There are also some six wards for patients who are war veterans. All units of the Hospital have close links with community health centres and other health services within the region.

Source:L. H. Barnes,"Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney.

Rozelle Hospital

2008-03-26T19:57:59Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In July 1976, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic and Callan Park Hospital were amalgamated and called the Rozelle Hospital. This Hospital, of 600 beds, now provides a comprehensive psychiatric service to communities in the Southern Metropolitan Health Region. The original building, known as Broughton House, was built in 1840 as a gentleman’s residence on land that had been a Crown grant to John Austen in 1819. This building was first used as a hospital and convalescent home by the army during World War I.

In 1921 new wards were built, and Broughton Hall was established as a psychiatric hospital. Sydney Evan-Jones was appointed as the first Medical Superintendent and also as a member of the teaching staff of the University. Broughton Hall rapidly became an important centre of teaching both in neurology and psychiatry.

In 1956, W. H. Trethowan was appointed to the Chair of Psychiatry and also became Clinical Director of Broughton Hall. These appointments were subsequently held by D. C. Maddison until 1974 and currently by P. J. V. Beumont. These appointments have stimulated further developments at the Hospital, most particularly in the form of teaching programmes for medical undergraduates and post-graduate students training to become psychiatrists. The postgraduate unit for the University was opened at the Hospital in 1957 with Maddison as Senior Lecturer. He was succeeded first by Associate Professor I. Pilowsky and later by Associate Professor G. Johnson.

Teaching facilities were expanded again in 1963 with the building of an enlarged outpatient area, day hospital and the Evan-Jones Lecture Theatre and group-room complex. The undergraduate teaching unit was built in 1973 with sophisticated audio and closed-circuit television facilities, library and classrooms.

The current clinical services comprise four admission wards for acute adult patients, special units for the treatment of alcohol and drug-dependent persons, a brain-damage unit, psychogeriatric units and a comprehensive rehabilitation service for chronically disturbed patients. There are also some six wards for patients who are war veterans. All units of the Hospital have close links with community health centres and other health services within the region.

[[b||Source]]:L. H. Barnes,"Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney.

Rozelle Hospital

2008-03-26T19:56:57Z

Doakaran: New page: category:Institutions category:Hospitals In July 1976, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic and Callan Park Hospital were amalgamated and called the Rozelle Hospital. This Hospital, o...

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
In July 1976, Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic and Callan Park Hospital were amalgamated and called the Rozelle Hospital. This Hospital, of 600 beds, now provides a comprehensive psychiatric service to communities in the Southern Metropolitan Health Region. The original building, known as Broughton House, was built in 1840 as a gentleman’s residence on land that had been a Crown grant to John Austen in 1819. This building was first used as a hospital and convalescent home by the army during World War I.

In 1921 new wards were built, and Broughton Hall was established as a psychiatric hospital. Sydney Evan-Jones was appointed as the first Medical Superintendent and also as a member of the teaching staff of the University. Broughton Hall rapidly became an important centre of teaching both in neurology and psychiatry.

In 1956, W. H. Trethowan was appointed to the Chair of Psychiatry and also became Clinical Director of Broughton Hall. These appointments were subsequently held by D. C. Maddison until 1974 and currently by P. J. V. Beumont. These appointments have stimulated further developments at the Hospital, most particularly in the form of teaching programmes for medical undergraduates and post-graduate students training to become psychiatrists. The postgraduate unit for the University was opened at the Hospital in 1957 with Maddison as Senior Lecturer. He was succeeded first by Associate Professor I. Pilowsky and later by Associate Professor G. Johnson.

Teaching facilities were expanded again in 1963 with the building of an enlarged outpatient area, day hospital and the Evan-Jones Lecture Theatre and group-room complex. The undergraduate teaching unit was built in 1973 with sophisticated audio and closed-circuit television facilities, library and classrooms.

The current clinical services comprise four admission wards for acute adult patients, special units for the treatment of alcohol and drug-dependent persons, a brain-damage unit, psychogeriatric units and a comprehensive rehabilitation service for chronically disturbed patients. There are also some six wards for patients who are war veterans. All units of the Hospital have close links with community health centres and other health services within the region.

Source:L. H. Barnes,"Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney.

Sydney Hospital

2008-03-26T15:21:31Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
[[category:Hospitals]]
Sydney Hospital’s interest in medical education was publicly stated as early as 1837 which was before the University was established and even before the Hospital, then a humble outpatient Dispensary, had beds. Creation of a clinical school was one of the objectives enshrined in the Sydney Hospital Act of 1881 whereby the former Sydney Infirmary also changed it name for the last time. Detailed analysis of the delay until 1909 before its ambitions could be realized must await publication of the hospital’s own history which will be entitled The Mother of Institutions. It will suffice to note here that the umbilical tie between Medical School and Prince Alfred Hospital, described elsewhere in this book, prevented the formation of a clinical school at Sydney Hospital for twenty-six years from 1883.

During those same years, Sydney Hospital lost its hitherto undisputed status as power-broker in the medical politics of the State. The seat of this power, thenceforth, lay neither with the University of Sydney nor with Prince Alfred Hospital, but in the combination of the two in pursuit of educational aims common to them both. Sydney Hospital did not resign without a fight and there are some published hints concerning the efforts of its supporters to disrupt planning committee meetings for the new Prince Alfred Hospital. Such behaviour did not augur well for future happy relations between the two hospitals.

Even so, the University could not afford to ignore Sydney Hospital entirely:
(i) Prince Alfred Hospital (‘Royal’ from 1903) did not build up a reservoir of patients to rival the Sydney Hospital clientele for many years, particularly in Casualty and some special services. Of necessity therefore, Sydney Hospital was recognized by the University as a centre for clinical teaching and, with the possible exception of a brief period between 1889 and 1894, there was always a small student presence at Macquarie Street.

(ii) Five of the first six part-time Lecturers in the Faculty of Medicine, had or were to have long associations with the Sydney Hospital honorary medical staff and the sixth, Frederick Milford (q.v.), had walked the old Infirmary wards with his colleague James Charles Cox (q.v.), when both were apprentices in the 1850s. Furthermore, two of the Lecturers, Thomas Chambers and W. H. Goode (qq.v.), were also foundation members of the Prince Alfred Hospital staff and subsequently lost office there. Chambers was long remembered by students for his tart remarks about Prince Alfred Hospital, after he had failed in his bid for election as Gynaecologist in 1883. He resigned as Physician at Prince Alfred Hospital in April 1884 and was appointed Gynaecologist at Sydney Hospital in 1886.

(iii) Thomas Evans was Ophthalmologist at Prince Alfred Hospital in 1882–1888, but he had few beds and the eye patients of New South Wales flocked to Sydney Hospital which had a Special Eye Department from 1879. Evans was on the staff there in 1882–1903 and succeeded Cecil Morgan as Head of Department in 1885. Morgan, who was probably the first true ophthalmic specialist in the State, had been officially designated Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology by the University Senate in December 1884. There was really no question as to where the best eye care and training in Sydney could be had. When Evans resigned from the Prince Alfred Hospital staff in June 1888, the reason given was his unwillingness to accept the proposed new office of University Lecturer in Ophthalmology. Perhaps the lack of beds was nearer the truth. F. A. Pockley succeeded Evans at Prince Alfred Hospital and obtained the Lectureship in September 1888. His specialist hospital experience up to that time had consisted of about three months’ postgraduate work in Vienna, and six months as junior to Evans at Prince Alfred Hospital from December 1887. Pockley’s main rival, W. Odillo Maher, had been Assistant House Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London in 1882 and was on the Sydney Hospital ophthalmic staff from January 1886.

(iv) The Faculty Examiners included the surgeon, Sir Alfred Roberts, guiding spirit of Prince Alfred Hospital, who in 1871 had been voted off the Sydney Infirmary staff after sixteen years’ service because of his reformist agitation, and the Sydney Hospital President, physician Arthur Renwick, who was also a Fellow of Senate and in that capacity, a regular attendant upon the deliberations of the Conjoint Board of the Senate of the University and the Directors of the Prince Alfred Hospital.

Co-operation between rival hospital camps was scarcely to be expected in the circumstances. Nor was the situation improved when, after some two years of discussion, the University and Prince Alfred Hospital came to an agreement in 1888 whereby University Lecturers were appointed to the honorary medical staff of the Prince Alfred Hospital ‘in virtue’ of their Lectureships. This agreement was interpreted so as to exclude Sydney Hospital staff from part-time University Lectureships — excepting the appointments already referred to — and there is no doubt that the intention was to close the shop. This could be justified for as long as Prince Alfred Hospital remained the only general teaching hospital. It was discriminatory after 1909.

A significant increase in the number of medical students from 1905 onwards outstripped Prince Alfred Hospital’s capacity to supply them with clinical experience. It was no accident that the Hospital was then as obsessed with expansion as the Medical School was, for the Dean, Anderson Stuart, was also Chairman of the Prince Alfred Hospital Board of Directors from 1901. But hospitals cannot be expanded over-night and especially not when they are dependent upon Government money. So the University opened negotiations with Sydney Hospital in September 1907, with a view to establishing a second clinical school. The proposal was warmly welcomed by the Sydney Hospital Board and its honorary medical staff. It took two years for the arrangements to be completed which indicates, if not opposition, at least a certain reluctance on the part of the Faculty as a whole. Only two Lecturers, Joseph Foreman and Sir James Graham, overtly opposed the Sydney Hospital clinical school and resented a request that they should alter their University teaching times. Both men had been Government nominees on the Sydney Hospital Board since the 1890s. Anderson Stuart was tactfully commended by Sydney Hospital for his ‘cordial assistance’ but most of the credit for the organisation of the school belonged to the Medical Superintendent, Archie Aspinall (Jessie’s brother, see Chapter 6), who had the thankless task of re-arranging hospital clinics to fit in with University lectures, and conciliating all those inconvenienced in the process. Aspinall was to become Clinical Lecturer in Surgery 1931–1941.

The official opening of the school by Hospital President John Pope on 20 October 1909, was also the occasion of one of Thomas Fiaschi’s finest public addresses. This was an early attempt to place the history of Australian medical practice within the context of the European teaching tradition whence it derived. Fiaschi had been honorary University Lecturer in the History of Medicine since November 1902. A general surgeon of Italian extraction and flamboyant reputation, Fiaschi was first Chairman of the Sydney Hospital Board of Medical Studies and remained so until war duties obliged him to retire in 1914.

The development of the clinical school was not without its difficulties. The Hospital never had adequate accommodation and teaching facilities for its students. The fine chapel of 1894 did duty as the only lecture hall until the Maitland Theatre was built on top of the Renwick Pavilion in 1920 and even so, the chapel continued to be used for lectures until the mid-1960s. The Travers Pavilion of 1927–1930 (on the Domain boundary) was the last major construction possible on the restricted site. All improvements thereafter were piecemeal and models of ingenuity rather than architectural style. There were no ward- or side-rooms used by students for clinical examinations and laboratory purposes until 1934 — which helped to explain their notorious predilection for smoking and card games (they did have a common room).
Nevertheless, two existing and still unrivalled teaching aids had their origins with the foundation of the clinical school, namely the Medical Library of 1910 and the Pathological Museum of 1912. Both owed much to Sydney Jamieson, Honorary Pathologist and foundation Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at Sydney Hospital. Neither was properly housed until 1964.

Student numbers at the Sydney Hospital clinical school commenced with twenty-eight in 1909 and fluctuated for no obvious reasons until 1917 when war created a demand for practitioners reflected in the fourth year intake, which peaked at sixty-four in 1920 and never exceeded that figure again until 1962 (73)<ref>Student numbers are prone to inaccuracy as the Hospital register does not always indicate those who fell by the wayside, or transferred, or were suspended.
</ref>. The two World Wars placed a heavy strain on all hospital medical staffs because the boost in student numbers was accompanied by a drain of experienced practitioners into military service. Sydney Hospital’s pride in an increasing student population changed to despair at its inability to provide for them. The first female students had registered in 1912 — there were two. It was rare for there to be a lone woman on the books in any one year. By 1922 there were said to be over 200 students in all years. Classes were far too big and individual instruction impossible; there was insufficient clinical material to go round. Because of extreme conservatism and financial constraints, both Hospital and University periodically rejected attempts by the medical staff to increase the number of official clinical teaching appointments. Conscientious tutors doubled up their work in order to ensure that students met University requirements and members of staff who did not have teaching appointments took students willingly enough, or were compelled to do so in terms of the Hospital by-laws.

The situation eased after 1924 when a new curriculum with an additional (sixth) year of study was introduced and a new clinical school at St Vincent’s Hospital established. The Sydney Hospital intake dropped sharply and students in all years combined during the 1930s usually numbered well under one hundred. Economic depression would have played its part here, but many factors influence a student’s choice of a teaching hospital, including the University’s own allocation policy which attracted constant criticism during and after the years of the Second World War. The Sydney Hospital Board of Medical Studies feared that it did not get its fair share of the better students.
Even if this were so on occasions, it was not always the result of direct institutional interference since the best students traditionally had their pick of the hospitals.

The annual student intake averaged about fifty-three throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and fifty-seven in the 1960s, with great deviations from year to year in this last decade. It may generally be said to have reduced steadily thereafter so that the intake of thirty-three students in 1982 was very close to that of fifty years before. In short, the political fortunes of Sydney Hospital are accurately reflected in the unsteady rhythm of student enrolments at its clinical school.

New curricula and additional teaching hospitals brought other problems such as time-tabling, which was always a mystery to hospitals lacking Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s privileged connection with the Medical School. An alleged absence of consultation in this matter remained one of Sydney Hospital’s most persistent grievances because insensitive alteration of time-tables disadvantaged students who had to travel some distance to their clinical work. Sydney Hospital partially solved this problem with a special student bus service which ran for some twenty years from 1958.

Up to 1931 the burden of student administration and discipline had fallen on successive Medical Superintendents who performed extraordinarily well considering their youth and inexperience. Yet they really had no time to devote to this branch of their work, whilst the Board of Medical Studies met too infrequently to provide the necessary continuity. The appointment of the full-time Bosch Professors in Medicine and Surgery by the University in 1930 marked a distinct change in the approach to student management at Sydney Hospital. On the recommendation of the Faculty of Medicine, the Hospital appointed its first Student Supervisor, (Sir) Kenneth Noad, in 1931. Noad held office for nine years. In 1956 the Hospital seconded a Registrar to the post of Assistant Student Supervisor and also created the appointment of honorary Warden of Clinical Studies. The latter was intended partly to aid the Student Supervisor, but mostly as a way of retaining the services of the recently ‘retired’ physician, Eddie Stokes. Stokes had been a Hospital student 1915–1917 and had devoted himself to clinical school affairs from 1925 as Tutor, Lecturer and Honorary Secretary to the Board of Medical Studies 1946–1956. As Warden he had general supervision of the work of the school and published its jubilee history in 1960. Ill-health forced a real retirement in 1961 when the post of Warden lapsed. It was revived in 1967 as a part-time University post with the surgeon J. E. Reimer as the first incumbent.

In 1936 the constitution of the strictly domestic Board of Medical Studies was amended to allow direct University participation in the management of hospital-based student activity. The new constitution was drafted by the Faculty of Medicine and provided for the Dean to become ex officio Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies at each main teaching hospital. Thus when Fiaschi’s successor, gynaecologist Ralph Worrall, retired as Chairman at the end of 1936, the Dean succeeded him. Such University involvement was long overdue.

Anderson Stuart’s 1909 flirtation with Sydney Hospital had proved the most casual of affaires, conducted without heart, for reasons of policy. The subsequent estrangement encouraged confrontation politics which made it difficult for participants to appreciate any point of view other than their own. The Hospital, for example, resisted any proposal that the University ought to have representation on medical appointments committees. Anderson Stuart had mentioned this desirable feature at the opening ceremony for the Sydney Hospital clinical school. The University looked upon the principle as a necessary step towards quality control with respect to the teaching capacity of hospital medical officers. A Conjoint (Appointments) Board had been agreed with Prince Alfred Hospital at the outset. But Sydney Hospital always interpreted the suggestion as a threat to its autonomy. The most it would allow was consultation between University and Hospital about the selection of clinical teachers from medical officers already in post. For the rest, it took sanctuary in its Act which specifically assigned to the Hospital Board, power of appointment over all senior medical and administrative posts.

The Hospital has never found it expedient to update its nineteenth century constitution because that would have required the full support of Government and there have not been many occasions when such support could be confidently expected. The major defects in the 1881 Act were the result of parliamentary interference in the first place, and the Hospital does not cling to its Act because of them, but in spite of them. It is true that age of itself does not imply administrative perfection. But it has never been safe for Sydney Hospital to assume that change would be for the better. Prince Alfred Hospital was new in 1882 and had nothing to give up, whilst Sydney Hospital was older than the University. It has always required evidence that the giving up of control over medical appointments would be to the advantage of Hospital staff and patients. All the University could do was argue from academic principle. It had no experience of hospital management and its early appointments to Lectureships in the Faculty of Medicine had not been remarkable for their objectivity.

The almost continuous Professorial presence on the Hospital Board since the appointment of Professor W. K. Inglis as a Director in 1946 may be interpreted as a placatory gesture, but the particular philosophical gulf was never bridged. It was a crucial factor underlying Sydney Hospital’s refusals: to switch Universities in 1961 and to become the main teaching hospital for the new Medical School at the University of New South Wales; and to move to the new hospital at Parramatta, now known as Westmead and opened in 1978. Time may judge such decisions to have been anachronistic and irrelevant, but they are understandable in the light of experience which is etched into the collective unconscious of the Sydney Hospital leadership.

The resolution to remain at Macquarie Street coincided with the injection of Federal and State Government money into student facilities at all teaching hospitals after 1961 (arising from the recommendations of the Australian Universities Commission). There followed the most positive and harmonious phase in the history of relations between Sydney Hospital and the University of Sydney. University Departments of Medicine (1961) and Surgery (1963) were located at the Hospital and elevated to full Professorial status in 1966. There were proposals for a new Chair in Ophthalmology, to be based at the Sydney Hospital Eye Department in Woolloomooloo (moved from Millers Point in 1922 and known as the Sydney Eye Hospital from 1960). Although the Chair did not attract an occupant until 1977, the University Department of Ophthalmology and Eye Health was established in 1964 — a mere eighty-two years after Sydney Hospital had put its Eye Department into a separate, 30–40 bed hospital unique in New South Wales.

Apart from the greatly improved physical environment for students, the most remarkable feature of the 1960s was the advance in clinical research. This had been firmly established within the Hospital under the guidance of Malcolm Whyte who was Director of Clinical Research from 1955. The new University teaching Departments took up the challenge with pioneering work in endocrinology (Posen), malignant melanoma (Milton and McCarthy), other forms of cancer (Stephens), and in the nature of medical education itself (McCarthy). The University also became more visible in the routine activities of the Hospital and as one result, there was greater interest on the part of its full-time Hospital-based staff in obtaining a voice in Hospital management. This created new tensions which could never be satisfactorily resolved in the Hospital as constituted and with the severe physical limitations which everybody recognized.

In a brief sketch such as this we can but note the existence of fascinating side issues which had a bearing on the clinical school, not least being the various ploys used by Sydney Hospital critics since 1905, to try to divorce the Hospital from its own Eye Department. Above all, it must be stressed that throughout the period under review, Sydney Hospital has been shaken by a series of crises without parallel in the history of any other institution. These revolved around bureaucratic attempts to move it from its prime site in Macquarie Street, which had been occupied as a hospital since 1816. Such crises were often associated with Government dreams to enlarge Parliament House (next door and part of the original Hospital complex); or schemes for inner-city renewal and beautification; or even plans to rationalize hospital services in the metropolitan area. This last, far from being a modern catch-cry, is older than the Hospital’s present main buildings which were started in 1880. Nor have the arguments for and against changed much since then.

An institution under threat as Sydney Hospital has been for so long, can never bargain as effectively as one which has an impregnable place in the community. Policy takes an unconscionable time to evolve in a politically vulnerable institution and what may have appeared to be lack of co-operation by Sydney Hospital on some vital issues in the past, was probably due to excessive caution. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the Medical School must celebrate its centenary so soon after traumatic events in 1982 which have led to a drastic reduction in Sydney Hospital’s services. What this will mean for its future as a teaching hospital is not yet clear. The Hospital’s extraordinary recuperative powers must not be overlooked; nor its history as one of very few institutions with a direct link to the foundation of European settlement in Australia in 1788.

It would not be a matter for congratulation if the oldest University in the country were to lose contact with the oldest hospital which will soon celebrate its second hundred years.

Source: Ann M. Mitchell<ref>Sydney Hospital Historian. The Editors are indebted to the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital for allowing Dr Mitchell to foreshadow part of her commissioned history of the hospital for the Board with the publication of this essay.</ref> "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

==References==
<references />

Sydney Hospital

2008-03-26T12:24:36Z

Doakaran: New page: Sydney Hospital’s interest in medical education was publicly stated as early as 1837 which was before the University was established and even before the Hospital, then a humble outpatien...

Sydney Hospital’s interest in medical education was publicly stated as early as 1837 which was before the University was established and even before the Hospital, then a humble outpatient Dispensary, had beds. Creation of a clinical school was one of the objectives enshrined in the Sydney Hospital Act of 1881 whereby the former Sydney Infirmary also changed it name for the last time. Detailed analysis of the delay until 1909 before its ambitions could be realized must await publication of the hospital’s own history which will be entitled The Mother of Institutions. It will suffice to note here that the umbilical tie between Medical School and Prince Alfred Hospital, described elsewhere in this book, prevented the formation of a clinical school at Sydney Hospital for twenty-six years from 1883.

During those same years, Sydney Hospital lost its hitherto undisputed status as power-broker in the medical politics of the State. The seat of this power, thenceforth, lay neither with the University of Sydney nor with Prince Alfred Hospital, but in the combination of the two in pursuit of educational aims common to them both. Sydney Hospital did not resign without a fight and there are some published hints concerning the efforts of its supporters to disrupt planning committee meetings for the new Prince Alfred Hospital. Such behaviour did not augur well for future happy relations between the two hospitals.

Even so, the University could not afford to ignore Sydney Hospital entirely:
(i) Prince Alfred Hospital (‘Royal’ from 1903) did not build up a reservoir of patients to rival the Sydney Hospital clientele for many years, particularly in Casualty and some special services. Of necessity therefore, Sydney Hospital was recognized by the University as a centre for clinical teaching and, with the possible exception of a brief period between 1889 and 1894, there was always a small student presence at Macquarie Street.

(ii) Five of the first six part-time Lecturers in the Faculty of Medicine, had or were to have long associations with the Sydney Hospital honorary medical staff and the sixth, Frederick Milford (q.v.), had walked the old Infirmary wards with his colleague James Charles Cox (q.v.), when both were apprentices in the 1850s. Furthermore, two of the Lecturers, Thomas Chambers and W. H. Goode (qq.v.), were also foundation members of the Prince Alfred Hospital staff and subsequently lost office there. Chambers was long remembered by students for his tart remarks about Prince Alfred Hospital, after he had failed in his bid for election as Gynaecologist in 1883. He resigned as Physician at Prince Alfred Hospital in April 1884 and was appointed Gynaecologist at Sydney Hospital in 1886.

(iii) Thomas Evans was Ophthalmologist at Prince Alfred Hospital in 1882–1888, but he had few beds and the eye patients of New South Wales flocked to Sydney Hospital which had a Special Eye Department from 1879. Evans was on the staff there in 1882–1903 and succeeded Cecil Morgan as Head of Department in 1885. Morgan, who was probably the first true ophthalmic specialist in the State, had been officially designated Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology by the University Senate in December 1884. There was really no question as to where the best eye care and training in Sydney could be had. When Evans resigned from the Prince Alfred Hospital staff in June 1888, the reason given was his unwillingness to accept the proposed new office of University Lecturer in Ophthalmology. Perhaps the lack of beds was nearer the truth. F. A. Pockley succeeded Evans at Prince Alfred Hospital and obtained the Lectureship in September 1888. His specialist hospital experience up to that time had consisted of about three months’ postgraduate work in Vienna, and six months as junior to Evans at Prince Alfred Hospital from December 1887. Pockley’s main rival, W. Odillo Maher, had been Assistant House Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London in 1882 and was on the Sydney Hospital ophthalmic staff from January 1886.

(iv) The Faculty Examiners included the surgeon, Sir Alfred Roberts, guiding spirit of Prince Alfred Hospital, who in 1871 had been voted off the Sydney Infirmary staff after sixteen years’ service because of his reformist agitation, and the Sydney Hospital President, physician Arthur Renwick, who was also a Fellow of Senate and in that capacity, a regular attendant upon the deliberations of the Conjoint Board of the Senate of the University and the Directors of the Prince Alfred Hospital.

Co-operation between rival hospital camps was scarcely to be expected in the circumstances. Nor was the situation improved when, after some two years of discussion, the University and Prince Alfred Hospital came to an agreement in 1888 whereby University Lecturers were appointed to the honorary medical staff of the Prince Alfred Hospital ‘in virtue’ of their Lectureships. This agreement was interpreted so as to exclude Sydney Hospital staff from part-time University Lectureships — excepting the appointments already referred to — and there is no doubt that the intention was to close the shop. This could be justified for as long as Prince Alfred Hospital remained the only general teaching hospital. It was discriminatory after 1909.

A significant increase in the number of medical students from 1905 onwards outstripped Prince Alfred Hospital’s capacity to supply them with clinical experience. It was no accident that the Hospital was then as obsessed with expansion as the Medical School was, for the Dean, Anderson Stuart, was also Chairman of the Prince Alfred Hospital Board of Directors from 1901. But hospitals cannot be expanded over-night and especially not when they are dependent upon Government money. So the University opened negotiations with Sydney Hospital in September 1907, with a view to establishing a second clinical school. The proposal was warmly welcomed by the Sydney Hospital Board and its honorary medical staff. It took two years for the arrangements to be completed which indicates, if not opposition, at least a certain reluctance on the part of the Faculty as a whole. Only two Lecturers, Joseph Foreman and Sir James Graham, overtly opposed the Sydney Hospital clinical school and resented a request that they should alter their University teaching times. Both men had been Government nominees on the Sydney Hospital Board since the 1890s. Anderson Stuart was tactfully commended by Sydney Hospital for his ‘cordial assistance’ but most of the credit for the organisation of the school belonged to the Medical Superintendent, Archie Aspinall (Jessie’s brother, see Chapter 6), who had the thankless task of re-arranging hospital clinics to fit in with University lectures, and conciliating all those inconvenienced in the process. Aspinall was to become Clinical Lecturer in Surgery 1931–1941.

The official opening of the school by Hospital President John Pope on 20 October 1909, was also the occasion of one of Thomas Fiaschi’s finest public addresses. This was an early attempt to place the history of Australian medical practice within the context of the European teaching tradition whence it derived. Fiaschi had been honorary University Lecturer in the History of Medicine since November 1902. A general surgeon of Italian extraction and flamboyant reputation, Fiaschi was first Chairman of the Sydney Hospital Board of Medical Studies and remained so until war duties obliged him to retire in 1914.

The development of the clinical school was not without its difficulties. The Hospital never had adequate accommodation and teaching facilities for its students. The fine chapel of 1894 did duty as the only lecture hall until the Maitland Theatre was built on top of the Renwick Pavilion in 1920 and even so, the chapel continued to be used for lectures until the mid-1960s. The Travers Pavilion of 1927–1930 (on the Domain boundary) was the last major construction possible on the restricted site. All improvements thereafter were piecemeal and models of ingenuity rather than architectural style. There were no ward- or side-rooms used by students for clinical examinations and laboratory purposes until 1934 — which helped to explain their notorious predilection for smoking and card games (they did have a common room).
Nevertheless, two existing and still unrivalled teaching aids had their origins with the foundation of the clinical school, namely the Medical Library of 1910 and the Pathological Museum of 1912. Both owed much to Sydney Jamieson, Honorary Pathologist and foundation Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at Sydney Hospital. Neither was properly housed until 1964.

Student numbers at the Sydney Hospital clinical school commenced with twenty-eight in 1909 and fluctuated for no obvious reasons until 1917 when war created a demand for practitioners reflected in the fourth year intake, which peaked at sixty-four in 1920 and never exceeded that figure again until 1962 (73)<ref>Student numbers are prone to inaccuracy as the Hospital register does not always indicate those who fell by the wayside, or transferred, or were suspended.
</ref>. The two World Wars placed a heavy strain on all hospital medical staffs because the boost in student numbers was accompanied by a drain of experienced practitioners into military service. Sydney Hospital’s pride in an increasing student population changed to despair at its inability to provide for them. The first female students had registered in 1912 — there were two. It was rare for there to be a lone woman on the books in any one year. By 1922 there were said to be over 200 students in all years. Classes were far too big and individual instruction impossible; there was insufficient clinical material to go round. Because of extreme conservatism and financial constraints, both Hospital and University periodically rejected attempts by the medical staff to increase the number of official clinical teaching appointments. Conscientious tutors doubled up their work in order to ensure that students met University requirements and members of staff who did not have teaching appointments took students willingly enough, or were compelled to do so in terms of the Hospital by-laws.

The situation eased after 1924 when a new curriculum with an additional (sixth) year of study was introduced and a new clinical school at St Vincent’s Hospital established. The Sydney Hospital intake dropped sharply and students in all years combined during the 1930s usually numbered well under one hundred. Economic depression would have played its part here, but many factors influence a student’s choice of a teaching hospital, including the University’s own allocation policy which attracted constant criticism during and after the years of the Second World War. The Sydney Hospital Board of Medical Studies feared that it did not get its fair share of the better students.
Even if this were so on occasions, it was not always the result of direct institutional interference since the best students traditionally had their pick of the hospitals.

The annual student intake averaged about fifty-three throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and fifty-seven in the 1960s, with great deviations from year to year in this last decade. It may generally be said to have reduced steadily thereafter so that the intake of thirty-three students in 1982 was very close to that of fifty years before. In short, the political fortunes of Sydney Hospital are accurately reflected in the unsteady rhythm of student enrolments at its clinical school.

New curricula and additional teaching hospitals brought other problems such as time-tabling, which was always a mystery to hospitals lacking Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s privileged connection with the Medical School. An alleged absence of consultation in this matter remained one of Sydney Hospital’s most persistent grievances because insensitive alteration of time-tables disadvantaged students who had to travel some distance to their clinical work. Sydney Hospital partially solved this problem with a special student bus service which ran for some twenty years from 1958.

Up to 1931 the burden of student administration and discipline had fallen on successive Medical Superintendents who performed extraordinarily well considering their youth and inexperience. Yet they really had no time to devote to this branch of their work, whilst the Board of Medical Studies met too infrequently to provide the necessary continuity. The appointment of the full-time Bosch Professors in Medicine and Surgery by the University in 1930 marked a distinct change in the approach to student management at Sydney Hospital. On the recommendation of the Faculty of Medicine, the Hospital appointed its first Student Supervisor, (Sir) Kenneth Noad, in 1931. Noad held office for nine years. In 1956 the Hospital seconded a Registrar to the post of Assistant Student Supervisor and also created the appointment of honorary Warden of Clinical Studies. The latter was intended partly to aid the Student Supervisor, but mostly as a way of retaining the services of the recently ‘retired’ physician, Eddie Stokes. Stokes had been a Hospital student 1915–1917 and had devoted himself to clinical school affairs from 1925 as Tutor, Lecturer and Honorary Secretary to the Board of Medical Studies 1946–1956. As Warden he had general supervision of the work of the school and published its jubilee history in 1960. Ill-health forced a real retirement in 1961 when the post of Warden lapsed. It was revived in 1967 as a part-time University post with the surgeon J. E. Reimer as the first incumbent.

In 1936 the constitution of the strictly domestic Board of Medical Studies was amended to allow direct University participation in the management of hospital-based student activity. The new constitution was drafted by the Faculty of Medicine and provided for the Dean to become ex officio Chairman of the Board of Medical Studies at each main teaching hospital. Thus when Fiaschi’s successor, gynaecologist Ralph Worrall, retired as Chairman at the end of 1936, the Dean succeeded him. Such University involvement was long overdue.

Anderson Stuart’s 1909 flirtation with Sydney Hospital had proved the most casual of affaires, conducted without heart, for reasons of policy. The subsequent estrangement encouraged confrontation politics which made it difficult for participants to appreciate any point of view other than their own. The Hospital, for example, resisted any proposal that the University ought to have representation on medical appointments committees. Anderson Stuart had mentioned this desirable feature at the opening ceremony for the Sydney Hospital clinical school. The University looked upon the principle as a necessary step towards quality control with respect to the teaching capacity of hospital medical officers. A Conjoint (Appointments) Board had been agreed with Prince Alfred Hospital at the outset. But Sydney Hospital always interpreted the suggestion as a threat to its autonomy. The most it would allow was consultation between University and Hospital about the selection of clinical teachers from medical officers already in post. For the rest, it took sanctuary in its Act which specifically assigned to the Hospital Board, power of appointment over all senior medical and administrative posts.

The Hospital has never found it expedient to update its nineteenth century constitution because that would have required the full support of Government and there have not been many occasions when such support could be confidently expected. The major defects in the 1881 Act were the result of parliamentary interference in the first place, and the Hospital does not cling to its Act because of them, but in spite of them. It is true that age of itself does not imply administrative perfection. But it has never been safe for Sydney Hospital to assume that change would be for the better. Prince Alfred Hospital was new in 1882 and had nothing to give up, whilst Sydney Hospital was older than the University. It has always required evidence that the giving up of control over medical appointments would be to the advantage of Hospital staff and patients. All the University could do was argue from academic principle. It had no experience of hospital management and its early appointments to Lectureships in the Faculty of Medicine had not been remarkable for their objectivity.

The almost continuous Professorial presence on the Hospital Board since the appointment of Professor W. K. Inglis as a Director in 1946 may be interpreted as a placatory gesture, but the particular philosophical gulf was never bridged. It was a crucial factor underlying Sydney Hospital’s refusals: to switch Universities in 1961 and to become the main teaching hospital for the new Medical School at the University of New South Wales; and to move to the new hospital at Parramatta, now known as Westmead and opened in 1978. Time may judge such decisions to have been anachronistic and irrelevant, but they are understandable in the light of experience which is etched into the collective unconscious of the Sydney Hospital leadership.

The resolution to remain at Macquarie Street coincided with the injection of Federal and State Government money into student facilities at all teaching hospitals after 1961 (arising from the recommendations of the Australian Universities Commission). There followed the most positive and harmonious phase in the history of relations between Sydney Hospital and the University of Sydney. University Departments of Medicine (1961) and Surgery (1963) were located at the Hospital and elevated to full Professorial status in 1966. There were proposals for a new Chair in Ophthalmology, to be based at the Sydney Hospital Eye Department in Woolloomooloo (moved from Millers Point in 1922 and known as the Sydney Eye Hospital from 1960). Although the Chair did not attract an occupant until 1977, the University Department of Ophthalmology and Eye Health was established in 1964 — a mere eighty-two years after Sydney Hospital had put its Eye Department into a separate, 30–40 bed hospital unique in New South Wales.

Apart from the greatly improved physical environment for students, the most remarkable feature of the 1960s was the advance in clinical research. This had been firmly established within the Hospital under the guidance of Malcolm Whyte who was Director of Clinical Research from 1955. The new University teaching Departments took up the challenge with pioneering work in endocrinology (Posen), malignant melanoma (Milton and McCarthy), other forms of cancer (Stephens), and in the nature of medical education itself (McCarthy). The University also became more visible in the routine activities of the Hospital and as one result, there was greater interest on the part of its full-time Hospital-based staff in obtaining a voice in Hospital management. This created new tensions which could never be satisfactorily resolved in the Hospital as constituted and with the severe physical limitations which everybody recognized.

In a brief sketch such as this we can but note the existence of fascinating side issues which had a bearing on the clinical school, not least being the various ploys used by Sydney Hospital critics since 1905, to try to divorce the Hospital from its own Eye Department. Above all, it must be stressed that throughout the period under review, Sydney Hospital has been shaken by a series of crises without parallel in the history of any other institution. These revolved around bureaucratic attempts to move it from its prime site in Macquarie Street, which had been occupied as a hospital since 1816. Such crises were often associated with Government dreams to enlarge Parliament House (next door and part of the original Hospital complex); or schemes for inner-city renewal and beautification; or even plans to rationalize hospital services in the metropolitan area. This last, far from being a modern catch-cry, is older than the Hospital’s present main buildings which were started in 1880. Nor have the arguments for and against changed much since then.

An institution under threat as Sydney Hospital has been for so long, can never bargain as effectively as one which has an impregnable place in the community. Policy takes an unconscionable time to evolve in a politically vulnerable institution and what may have appeared to be lack of co-operation by Sydney Hospital on some vital issues in the past, was probably due to excessive caution. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the Medical School must celebrate its centenary so soon after traumatic events in 1982 which have led to a drastic reduction in Sydney Hospital’s services. What this will mean for its future as a teaching hospital is not yet clear. The Hospital’s extraordinary recuperative powers must not be overlooked; nor its history as one of very few institutions with a direct link to the foundation of European settlement in Australia in 1788.

It would not be a matter for congratulation if the oldest University in the country were to lose contact with the oldest hospital which will soon celebrate its second hundred years.

Source: Ann M. Mitchell<ref>Sydney Hospital Historian. The Editors are indebted to the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital for allowing Dr Mitchell to foreshadow part of her commissioned history of the hospital for the Board with the publication of this essay.</ref> "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

==References==
<references />

Sydney University Medical Society

2008-03-26T12:24:30Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Institutions]]
ANDERSON STUART, remembering the value of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh to the students and their teachers, called a meeting on 9 April 1886. It was held in the cottage that then housed the Medical School. Thus began the first Faculty society of the University of Sydney. The objects of the Society, according to its first minute book, were the ‘intellectual and social improvement of its members by lectures, essays and discussions, in any branch of medical science, and by any other means calculated to advance the objects of the Society’. Membership was open to the students, then thirty-nine in number, and to members of the teaching staff.

The first Council comprised: the Honorary President, Professor Anderson Stuart; Vice-Presidents, Dr Frederick Milford and Mr Peter Bancroft; Honorary Secretary, Mr Arthur Henry (qq.v.); Honorary Treasurer, Mr P. A. Townley; Honorary Librarian, Mr Cecil Purser; Committee of Management, Dr A. MacCormick (q.v.), Dr E. J. Jenkins, Dr W. Camac Wilkinson (q.v.) and Mr L. E. F. Neill. Meetings were held each month in the Clinical Theatre of Prince Alfred Hospital, and the first student to read a paper was The Rev. David Dunlop Rutledge (q.v.), whose topic was My Life as a Medical Student. The first social function was held on 10 December 1886, and took the curious form of a ‘smoke concert’ in the out-patients’ waiting room at Prince Alfred Hospital. It was so successful that it remained an annual event until 1904.

Early in 1888, the Honorary Secretary of the Society, Cecil Purser, was instructed to write to the Senate, urging ‘the necessity that exists for more regular attendance…of Honorary Medical Officers at Prince Alfred Hospital, and also the necessity of the Honorary Medical Officers giving more bedside instruction than they do at present.’ The Senate declined to recognise an ‘unauthorised’ society among undergraduates, and merely forwarded the letter to the Board of Directors of the Hospital. Consequently, the Society requested recognition, and on 17 April a letter was received from H. E. Barff, the Registrar, stating that ‘I have the honour to inform you that the Senate has decided to recognise the Medical Society, and to allow it to retain the word “University” in connection with its name, and to allow a notice of the Society’s objects etc., to appear in the University Calendar’.
According to Grafton Elliot Smith, in 1892 the Council was faced with the problem of deciding whether the Society should be allowed to expire, but interest was revived by an attractive programme of activities. The only comparable crisis was recorded by A. J. Aspinall, who remembered that ‘in 1904 the Society was at a low ebb. The annual smoke concert was held in the dissecting room until Leslie Cowlishaw became Secretary and organized an annual dinner, held in the city, which was largely attended by graduates and undergraduates, and was the means of putting new life into the Society’<ref>In fact, an earlier medical dinner was held in the city on 19 September 1903, convened by W. G. Armstrong.</ref>

An important factor in the continuing success of the Society was its journal. Hermes, from its first issue in 1886, recorded Medical Society activities, and between 1895 and 1905 provided at a small extra cost a ‘medical supplement’ of sixteen pages, produced by the Society. In 1905 this became an independent annual. In 1913, on the recommendation of Hugh Poate, it was published each term, an arrangement which continued until 1936. Between 1937 and 1942 there were two issues each year. The Journal then became once more an annual, until its last issue in 1974. (There was no issue in 1973.) It is not difficult to assess the importance of the Journal. Its regular appearance—elegant, dignified, full of personal notes, photographs and records—provided a valuable link between members of all grades and ages. It presented a unique record of changing conditions, thought and manners.

Since 1946 the Society has also produced, mainly for the benefit of undergraduates, the less formal and more topical Innominate. This appears irregularly, but since 1977 there has always been an issue entitled Feat First, in Orientation Week, to introduce the Society to first-year students.

In 1922, Wallace Freeborn, a final-year student, organized the production of a Senior Year Book, which recorded by photographs and personal notes all members of his class and their teachers. This became a continuing tradition which provides an interesting and colourful addition to University records.

In its first year the Medical Society arranged for subscriptions to several journals, and these were soon increased by donations. The early Councils always included an Honorary Librarian, and in 1906 J. L. Shellshear took the office very seriously. He formed a nucleus of books, which were housed at Prince Alfred Hospital. In 1910 a branch library was established at Sydney Hospital. There was no separate Medical Library at the University before 1934. Students and staff relied upon Fisher and Faculty collections, and especially upon the Medical Society, which not only had its own collection, but also donated publications and funds to Hospital and University libraries. The tradition continues in the form of the War Memorial Library Fund, which allocates money to teaching hospitals for the purchase of books chosen by the librarians.

Concern at the cost of textbooks, most of which were imported, led during the 1940s to the Council’s examining the feasibility of establishing a ‘Book Scheme’ which would enable it to obtain textbooks—initially ‘on consignment’ from the Times Bookshop in Sydney—which could be sold to students at a small saving. In 1951 this was extended to the import of books from a University bookseller in England, bought at the English retail price. The history of the Book Scheme is long and complex, for it has survived many changes and vicissitudes. Its success is evident in the Medical Society Book Depot in the Blackburn Building. Small, cheerful and busy, it boasts ‘the largest turnover, relative to area’ of any medical bookshop in Australia. Here graduates, students and staff obtain current texts, specialist publications, skeletons and instruments, as well as lecture notes produced by the Society’s own printing service. The Book Scheme is the responsibility of a student Director, assisted by a part-time paid staff, and the General Secretary of the Society, Mrs Sheila Nicholas. Mrs Nicholas has been employed by the Society since 1951, and her continuing service and experience is one of its greatest assets.

Before 1967, when University Administration Units were established at the teaching hospitals, and until the Dean’s Office was developed by Professor Loewenthal, the Society was the chief link between the Faculty and the students. Many a problem in communication and organization was solved by Mrs Nicholas and the Council. In 1971, the Faculty of Medicine was the first at the University of Sydney to have student representation, and in 1972 the newly created Society position of Senior Undergraduate Vice-President ensured representation, with voting rights for the holder of that office.

Apart from maintaining a programme of social activities, the Society is concerned with every aspect of student activity and interest. Members of each pre-clinical year, and of each year at all teaching hospitals, are represented on the Council, which also appoints liaison officers to the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Medical Students’ Association, the Medical Societies of the Universities of N.S.W. and Newcastle, and other associations and societies. It is represented on the Academic Board, the Staff-student Liaison Committee and the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Medicine.

Each year the Society invites a distinguished speaker to deliver the ‘Lambie-Dew’ oration in the Great Hall. Another tradition is the Robin May award which commemorates the memory of five members of the Society who were lost at sea in the launch Robin May in 1945. It is awarded, by ballot, to the student who most demonstrates leadership and good fellowship throughout the course.

Source: Anderson, V (1984) "Sydney University Medical Society" in Young J, Sefton A and Webb N, Centenary Book of the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine. Sydney University Press, Sydney

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:15:43Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|right|300</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:15:11Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|right|300</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:14:33Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:14:08Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|center</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:13:22Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|300</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:12:34Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.

In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|left|200</ibimage>
On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|right</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:11:42Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|225</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.
<ibimage>FMMUS201|200</ibimage>
In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.

On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.
<ibimage>FMMUS182|left</ibimage>
Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

McLeod, James Graham

2008-03-16T18:07:36Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS91|right|250</ibimage>
BSc(Med) 1953
MB BS 1959
DSc 1997
FRACP FRCP DPhil (Oxon), Honorary Doctor of the
University of Aix-Marseille, FAA FAATSE

James (Jim) McLeod was the Foundation Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney in 1978. This was the first established Chair of Neurology in Australia. In his research and clinical practice, James McLeod has been a pioneer in epidemiological research and clinical understanding of multiple sclerosis in Australia, as well as in research on hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies and muscle diseases.

James McLeod was born in Sydney in 1932. He entered the Faculty of Medicine in 1949 and completed his BSc (Med) in 1953, having studied under Professor Bishop. During this time, James met Professor Frank Cotton and partook in his experiments to test medical students and others for their physical capacity for rowing. It was an experiment that turned into a lifelong interest. James trained as a rower with Frank Cotton and went on the win Blues at the University of Sydney for rowing and rifle shooting, as well as rowing for the New South Wales crew in the Kings Cup.
<ibimage>FMMUS201</ibimage>
In 1953, Jim became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, being awarded his DPhil in 1956 for his research into the neurophysiology of referred pain. Whilst at Oxford, Jim continued rowing and represented Oxford University in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. In 1954, he had the honour and pleasure of winning the 100th boat race, together with three other Australian scholars in the crew.

On return to Australia, he completed his medical studies in the Faculty graduating MB BS in 1959. He was a part-time lecturer in physiology at the University of Sydney, concurrently completing his residency at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he became Medical Registrar in 1961. He spent part of 1962 as a Medical Registrar at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand in an exchange program for registrars. Back in Australia in 1963, he took up an appointment as Clinical Superintendent (Medical) at Royal Prince Alfred.

As a Nuffield Travelling Fellow in 1964, he visited London and worked as an Academic Registrar in the Institute of Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In 1965, a Lilly International Travelling Fellowship took him to Harvard University as a Fellow in Neurology. During this time, he undertook clinical training and neurological research into peripheral nerve function and disorders.

Jim became a Visiting Physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord in the 1960s. In 1967 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Sydney, later becoming Associate Professor in 1970 and Bosch Professor in 1978, a position he held until retirement. From 1972 to 1978 he was Professor of Medicine at Sydney Hospital with clinical and teaching responsibilities there.

Jim has been actively involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia since 1976 and was a member of their research advisory board for many years, including in the positions of Chairman and Vice-Chairman. He is presently Research Advisor to MS Research Australia. He was also a member of the International Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies. With Tony Basten he carried out the first clinical trail of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis in Australia, initially with transfer factor and then later with alpha- and beta- interferons. These trials were aimed at testing whether the use of these substances reduced the number of attacks and later progression of the illness. Since these early studies, James has continued to research the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, along with his research fellows and collaborators mapping its prevalence and incidence alongside the clinical features and course of the illness. Jim work in this area is ongoing and quoted in much of the medical literature on the subject.

He was appointed an Honorary Consultant Neurophysiologist at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and Consultant Physician at Royal North Shore and Sydney Hospitals in 1977.

In 1978 he became Visiting Professor at the National Hospital in Queen Square, London. That year was busy for Jim, also appointed Head of the Department of Neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as well as Head of the Department of Medicine and Bushell Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney. This was the first established Chair of Neurology at the University of Sydney and in Australia.

As Bushell Professor, Jim established a highly productive research group which became known internationally, and which worked mainly on peripheral nerve and muscle diseases and multiple sclerosis. With Richard Gye, John Hargrave and John Pollard he developed a technique of nerve grafting for treatment of leprosy and made visits to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin to treat Aboriginal patients. Later, with Richard Gye and Stan Lamond, he introduced a consultant neurosurgery/neurology service to Fiji.
<ibimage>FMMUS65|left|250</ibimage>
Between 1972 and 1994, Jim was appointed Sub-Dean, Pro-Dean and at times Acting Dean within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney. He served on the Board of Directors of the Royal North Shore Hospital from 1978 to 1986, including as Vice-Chairman from 1982. In 1979, he was made Honorary Life Governor of the Australian Postgraduate Medical Foundation. From 1981–84, he served on the National Board of Directors of the Australian Brain Foundation, was President of the Australian Association of Neurologists and Director of the Australian Neurological Foundation. He was also a member of the Project Grants and Medical Research Committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council from 1976 to 1993. He was appointed Sir Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1983 and gave lectures in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe and in 1989 was awarded a Commonwealth Medical Senior Fellowship to sudy and report on medical teaching in the United Kingdom.

Jim joined the Board of Governors of the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1980 and in 1984, he was appointed Head of the Division of Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 1981 and has been a member of its Council, Vice-President and Treasurer. He was elected to Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1987.

In 1990, he became Chairman of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at RPAH and was appointed Director of Neurosciences for the Central Sydney Area Health Service in 1995.

James was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986, for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of neurology”.<ref>http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 7 February 2006.</ref> In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for “service to Australian society and science in clinical neuroscience”.<ref>ibid.</ref>

At present he is an Emeritus Professor with the University of Sydney (appointed in 1997) and remains a consultant to several Sydney hospitals.

==References==
<references />

Gye, Richard Spencer Butler

2008-03-16T18:02:42Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS194|right|250</ibimage>
BSc (Med) 1953
MB BS 1955
Hon MD 1993
DPhil (Oxon) MA (Oxon) FRACS FRCS (Eng)

Richard Gye developed the first academic unit of neurosurgery in Australia, and became the first full-time Dean of Medicine within the Faculty in 1974, a post he held for 15 years.

After leaving Knox Grammar School, Richard enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, serving as a Commissioned Officer until the end of World War II. In 1948, he enrolled in Medicine at the University of Sydney, part of a large post-war intake.

His interest in neurology began early in his medical studies when Burkitt, Professor of Anatomy, requested that he review the vascular components of the optic radiation of the human brain. He was one of the first students to spend a year with Dr (later Professor) Peter Bishop whilst working for a Bachelor of Science (Medical) degree in the field of neurophysiology. He graduated with honours in 1953, obtaining, his MB BS, also with honours, in 1955.

Richard was then appointed Resident Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he became interested in surgery and gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was later appointed Professorial Surgical Registrar to John Loewenthal, and was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship in 1960 to further his studies and clinical experience in neurosurgery in Oxford.

Dr Pennybacker, Head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, accepted Richard as House Officer, later appointing him as Senior Registrar to the Infirmary, one of four neurosurgical centres established in the 1930s and situated in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford. (The Oxford Unit was developed by Professor Sir Hugh Cairns, originally from South Australia.) Providing neurosurgical services to over four million people, the demands in the Department were heavy and constant, and Richard was grateful for the wealth of training, guidance and clinical experience he obtained.
In 1961 he was admitted as a Member of Worcester College, Oxford, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis, A Clinical and Experimental Study of Chronic Sub-dural Effusions, based on extensive clinical and laboratory studies, demonstrating that postural intracranial pressure changes were responsible for the lesions following mild head injuries in elderly patients with cerebral atrophy.

Richard returned to Sydney in 1964 to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Surgery (Neurosurgery) at the University of Sydney, where he developed the first academic unit of Neurosurgery in Australia. His clinical work took place at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was later made Head of the Department of Neurosurgery.

Richard was also appointed Head of Neurosurgery at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord where he and James McLeod integrated the practice of neurology and neurosurgery. In response to a request from the Health Department in Fiji, they visited Suva at least twice a year providing a clinical neurology and neurosurgery service over a period of five years.

In 1968, they began to investigate the possibility of peripheral nerve transplants for loss of more than 5cm of nerve in soldiers wounded in Vietnam. These extensive wounds were difficult to treat by conventional techniques, and they proposed to examine the feasibility of transplants in experimental animals. John Pollard (now Bushell Professor of Neurology) undertook the project as a PhD study in 1969, and demonstrated that with the use of immunosuppressive agents, regeneration through transplants resulted in a good recovery of nerve function in rats. Mindful of the possible use of nerve transplants in humans, he devised a method of storing nerves for transplantation by freeze-drying and sterilising by irradiation.

Following the suggestion by Miles Little that nerve transplants could benefit leprosy patients with severe neuropathy, Richard and McLeod travelled to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin. John Hargrave, Medical Director of the Hospital, felt that some of his patients could benefit from nerve transplantation. Although Richard and Hargrave had reservations that any significant regeneration within the conduit would occur since the nerve lesions were up to 20cm in length and not recent, they performed nerve transplants in a selected group of patients. The <ibimage>FMMUS126|left|250</ibimage>patients were post-operatively treated with an immunosuppressive agent, and after three years, two of the 23 patients treated regained good protective sensation, five had a partial recovery and there was no evidence of improvement in the remainder. Despite its limited success, the project did reveal that transplants could be used to treat severe nerve lesions provided that they were inserted with a minimum of delay after the injury had occurred.

In 1970, Richard was offered the position of Head of the Department of Neurosurgery following the impending retirement of his mentor, Dr Pennybacker, in 1971. After discussions with the Chairman of the Hospital Board of Directors, Richard accepted the invitation on the basis that he would be provided with modern facilities with the Department to be situated in the new John Radcliffe Hospital at Headington, Oxford, still under construction. The Department was also to receive increased funding for development and to further its research. With these assurances he moved to Oxford in 1971.

Though he set about supporting the integration of the impressive neurosciences group in the Radcliffe Infirmary and associated hospitals, he was disturbed to find that new developments in the NHS had led to the Boards of Management of Hospitals, including the Radcliffe Infirmary Board, being disbanded and replaced by Area Health Authorities. As time went by, it became clear that the new Area Health Authority would not honour the agreements made by the former Board, and that the poor working conditions in the Hospital would persist.
Thus when asked by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Bruce Williams to return to the University of Sydney as the first full-time Dean of Medicine, Richard accepted the offer, taking up his post in 1974. According to Professor Young:

<blockquote>His reputation not only as a distinguished clinical and academic neurosurgeon but also as a medical administrator was recognised when he became the first full-time Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974. At the same time he was appointed academic Head of Neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and worked closely with Professor Jim McLeod in developing liaison and integration between the surgical and medical components of clinical neurological sciences.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Following Richard’s appointment as Dean, the Faculty of Medicine underwent enormous change and development. He was responsible for undertaking the establishment of the new Westmead Hospital as Australia’s first fully designed university hospital. During his Deanship a total of 43 new chairs together with supporting staff and facilities were established in the Faculty of Medicine. These positions were in a number of areas including Westmead Hospital, Concord Hospital, Sydney Eye Hospital, in Occupational Health, and in the Department of Public Health (which he saved from threats to its very existence) as well as in the older teaching hospitals, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore.<ref>From Young’s Valedictory for Professor R S Gye in 1992.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>After preparing and successfully implementing the new five-year curriculum despite his reservations on its intensive nature, Richard reintroduced a 6-year curriculum to the Faculty to lessen the pressure on undergraduate students and teachers in 1986.<ref>ibid.
</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean, Richard took an active interest in each of the teaching hospitals, chairing their Boards of Medical Studies, as well as an interest in the administration of a number of institutions and hospitals. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the United Dental Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Area Health Service and Western Sydney Area Health Service.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Postgraduate Committee in Medicine expanded its work and increased its value under the leadership of Professor Gye. The Menzies School of Health Research and the Centenary Institute were amongst his specially favoured enterprises to which he gave invaluable support.</blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean he had commitments to the New South Wales Medical Board, the Menzies Foundation, the Ramaciotti Foundations, the Australian Medical Council and the NSW State Cancer Council all of which called for his help, help that was freely given.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is fair to say that Richard Gye was one of the earlier proposers of the policy of devolution in the University. He could see the value of the Faculty of Medicine developing some autonomy and independence to the benefit of medical teaching and research. He also proposed, at different times, the possibility of a graduate degree being developed within the Medical School of the University of Sydney.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

In 1988, Richard was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for services to medicine.

Since his retirement as Dean, Richard has continued to actively support the Faculty and was instrumental in the development of the University’s Department of Neurosurgery. Before retiring from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1992, he was also engaged as Visiting Professor in Neurosurgery at the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. Following his retirement, he has been appointed Consultant Emeritus to the Neurosciences Centre and has worked as a medico-legal Consultant in private practice.

In 1992, Richard became Emeritus Professor of the University of Sydney.

==References==
<references />

Gye, Richard Spencer Butler

2008-03-16T18:01:58Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS194|right|250</ibimage>
BSc (Med) 1953
MB BS 1955
Hon MD 1993
DPhil (Oxon) MA (Oxon) FRACS FRCS (Eng)

Richard Gye developed the first academic unit of neurosurgery in Australia, and became the first full-time Dean of Medicine within the Faculty in 1974, a post he held for 15 years.

After leaving Knox Grammar School, Richard enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, serving as a Commissioned Officer until the end of World War II. In 1948, he enrolled in Medicine at the University of Sydney, part of a large post-war intake.

His interest in neurology began early in his medical studies when Burkitt, Professor of Anatomy, requested that he review the vascular components of the optic radiation of the human brain. He was one of the first students to spend a year with Dr (later Professor) Peter Bishop whilst working for a Bachelor of Science (Medical) degree in the field of neurophysiology. He graduated with honours in 1953, obtaining, his MB BS, also with honours, in 1955.

Richard was then appointed Resident Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he became interested in surgery and gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was later appointed Professorial Surgical Registrar to John Loewenthal, and was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship in 1960 to further his studies and clinical experience in neurosurgery in Oxford.

Dr Pennybacker, Head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, accepted Richard as House Officer, later appointing him as Senior Registrar to the Infirmary, one of four neurosurgical centres established in the 1930s and situated in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford. (The Oxford Unit was developed by Professor Sir Hugh Cairns, originally from South Australia.) Providing neurosurgical services to over four million people, the demands in the Department were heavy and constant, and Richard was grateful for the wealth of training, guidance and clinical experience he obtained.
In 1961 he was admitted as a Member of Worcester College, Oxford, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis, A Clinical and Experimental Study of Chronic Sub-dural Effusions, based on extensive clinical and laboratory studies, demonstrating that postural intracranial pressure changes were responsible for the lesions following mild head injuries in elderly patients with cerebral atrophy.

Richard returned to Sydney in 1964 to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Surgery (Neurosurgery) at the University of Sydney, where he developed the first academic unit of Neurosurgery in Australia. His clinical work took place at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was later made Head of the Department of Neurosurgery.

Richard was also appointed Head of Neurosurgery at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord where he and James McLeod integrated the practice of neurology and neurosurgery. In response to a request from the Health Department in Fiji, they visited Suva at least twice a year providing a clinical neurology and neurosurgery service over a period of five years.

In 1968, they began to investigate the possibility of peripheral nerve transplants for loss of more than 5cm of nerve in soldiers wounded in Vietnam. These extensive wounds were difficult to treat by conventional techniques, and they proposed to examine the feasibility of transplants in experimental animals. John Pollard (now Bushell Professor of Neurology) undertook the project as a PhD study in 1969, and demonstrated that with the use of immunosuppressive agents, regeneration through transplants resulted in a good recovery of nerve function in rats. Mindful of the possible use of nerve transplants in humans, he devised a method of storing nerves for transplantation by freeze-drying and sterilising by irradiation.

Following the suggestion by Miles Little that nerve transplants could benefit leprosy patients with severe neuropathy, Richard and McLeod travelled to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin. John Hargrave, Medical Director of the Hospital, felt that some of his patients could benefit from nerve transplantation. Although Richard and Hargrave had reservations that any significant regeneration within the conduit would occur since the nerve lesions were up to 20cm in length and not recent, they performed nerve transplants in a selected group of patients. The patients were post-operatively treated with an immunosuppressive agent, and after three years, two of the 23 patients treated regained good protective sensation, five had a partial recovery and there was no evidence of improvement in the remainder. Despite its limited success, the project did reveal that transplants could be used to treat severe nerve lesions provided that they were inserted with a minimum of delay after the injury had occurred.
<ibimage>FMMUS126|left|250</ibimage>
In 1970, Richard was offered the position of Head of the Department of Neurosurgery following the impending retirement of his mentor, Dr Pennybacker, in 1971. After discussions with the Chairman of the Hospital Board of Directors, Richard accepted the invitation on the basis that he would be provided with modern facilities with the Department to be situated in the new John Radcliffe Hospital at Headington, Oxford, still under construction. The Department was also to receive increased funding for development and to further its research. With these assurances he moved to Oxford in 1971.

Though he set about supporting the integration of the impressive neurosciences group in the Radcliffe Infirmary and associated hospitals, he was disturbed to find that new developments in the NHS had led to the Boards of Management of Hospitals, including the Radcliffe Infirmary Board, being disbanded and replaced by Area Health Authorities. As time went by, it became clear that the new Area Health Authority would not honour the agreements made by the former Board, and that the poor working conditions in the Hospital would persist.
Thus when asked by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Bruce Williams to return to the University of Sydney as the first full-time Dean of Medicine, Richard accepted the offer, taking up his post in 1974. According to Professor Young:

<blockquote>His reputation not only as a distinguished clinical and academic neurosurgeon but also as a medical administrator was recognised when he became the first full-time Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974. At the same time he was appointed academic Head of Neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and worked closely with Professor Jim McLeod in developing liaison and integration between the surgical and medical components of clinical neurological sciences.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Following Richard’s appointment as Dean, the Faculty of Medicine underwent enormous change and development. He was responsible for undertaking the establishment of the new Westmead Hospital as Australia’s first fully designed university hospital. During his Deanship a total of 43 new chairs together with supporting staff and facilities were established in the Faculty of Medicine. These positions were in a number of areas including Westmead Hospital, Concord Hospital, Sydney Eye Hospital, in Occupational Health, and in the Department of Public Health (which he saved from threats to its very existence) as well as in the older teaching hospitals, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore.<ref>From Young’s Valedictory for Professor R S Gye in 1992.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>After preparing and successfully implementing the new five-year curriculum despite his reservations on its intensive nature, Richard reintroduced a 6-year curriculum to the Faculty to lessen the pressure on undergraduate students and teachers in 1986.<ref>ibid.
</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean, Richard took an active interest in each of the teaching hospitals, chairing their Boards of Medical Studies, as well as an interest in the administration of a number of institutions and hospitals. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the United Dental Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Area Health Service and Western Sydney Area Health Service.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Postgraduate Committee in Medicine expanded its work and increased its value under the leadership of Professor Gye. The Menzies School of Health Research and the Centenary Institute were amongst his specially favoured enterprises to which he gave invaluable support.</blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean he had commitments to the New South Wales Medical Board, the Menzies Foundation, the Ramaciotti Foundations, the Australian Medical Council and the NSW State Cancer Council all of which called for his help, help that was freely given.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is fair to say that Richard Gye was one of the earlier proposers of the policy of devolution in the University. He could see the value of the Faculty of Medicine developing some autonomy and independence to the benefit of medical teaching and research. He also proposed, at different times, the possibility of a graduate degree being developed within the Medical School of the University of Sydney.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

In 1988, Richard was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for services to medicine.

Since his retirement as Dean, Richard has continued to actively support the Faculty and was instrumental in the development of the University’s Department of Neurosurgery. Before retiring from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1992, he was also engaged as Visiting Professor in Neurosurgery at the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. Following his retirement, he has been appointed Consultant Emeritus to the Neurosciences Centre and has worked as a medico-legal Consultant in private practice.

In 1992, Richard became Emeritus Professor of the University of Sydney.

==References==
<references />

Gye, Richard Spencer Butler

2008-03-16T18:01:17Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS194|right|300</ibimage>
BSc (Med) 1953
MB BS 1955
Hon MD 1993
DPhil (Oxon) MA (Oxon) FRACS FRCS (Eng)

Richard Gye developed the first academic unit of neurosurgery in Australia, and became the first full-time Dean of Medicine within the Faculty in 1974, a post he held for 15 years.

After leaving Knox Grammar School, Richard enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, serving as a Commissioned Officer until the end of World War II. In 1948, he enrolled in Medicine at the University of Sydney, part of a large post-war intake.

His interest in neurology began early in his medical studies when Burkitt, Professor of Anatomy, requested that he review the vascular components of the optic radiation of the human brain. He was one of the first students to spend a year with Dr (later Professor) Peter Bishop whilst working for a Bachelor of Science (Medical) degree in the field of neurophysiology. He graduated with honours in 1953, obtaining, his MB BS, also with honours, in 1955.

Richard was then appointed Resident Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he became interested in surgery and gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was later appointed Professorial Surgical Registrar to John Loewenthal, and was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship in 1960 to further his studies and clinical experience in neurosurgery in Oxford.

Dr Pennybacker, Head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, accepted Richard as House Officer, later appointing him as Senior Registrar to the Infirmary, one of four neurosurgical centres established in the 1930s and situated in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford. (The Oxford Unit was developed by Professor Sir Hugh Cairns, originally from South Australia.) Providing neurosurgical services to over four million people, the demands in the Department were heavy and constant, and Richard was grateful for the wealth of training, guidance and clinical experience he obtained.
In 1961 he was admitted as a Member of Worcester College, Oxford, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis, A Clinical and Experimental Study of Chronic Sub-dural Effusions, based on extensive clinical and laboratory studies, demonstrating that postural intracranial pressure changes were responsible for the lesions following mild head injuries in elderly patients with cerebral atrophy.

Richard returned to Sydney in 1964 to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Surgery (Neurosurgery) at the University of Sydney, where he developed the first academic unit of Neurosurgery in Australia. His clinical work took place at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was later made Head of the Department of Neurosurgery.

Richard was also appointed Head of Neurosurgery at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord where he and James McLeod integrated the practice of neurology and neurosurgery. In response to a request from the Health Department in Fiji, they visited Suva at least twice a year providing a clinical neurology and neurosurgery service over a period of five years.

In 1968, they began to investigate the possibility of peripheral nerve transplants for loss of more than 5cm of nerve in soldiers wounded in Vietnam. These extensive wounds were difficult to treat by conventional techniques, and they proposed to examine the feasibility of transplants in experimental animals. John Pollard (now Bushell Professor of Neurology) undertook the project as a PhD study in 1969, and demonstrated that with the use of immunosuppressive agents, regeneration through transplants resulted in a good recovery of nerve function in rats. Mindful of the possible use of nerve transplants in humans, he devised a method of storing nerves for transplantation by freeze-drying and sterilising by irradiation.

Following the suggestion by Miles Little that nerve transplants could benefit leprosy patients with severe neuropathy, Richard and McLeod travelled to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin. John Hargrave, Medical Director of the Hospital, felt that some of his patients could benefit from nerve transplantation. Although Richard and Hargrave had reservations that any significant regeneration within the conduit would occur since the nerve lesions were up to 20cm in length and not recent, they performed nerve transplants in a selected group of patients. The patients were post-operatively treated with an immunosuppressive agent, and after three years, two of the 23 patients treated regained good protective sensation, five had a partial recovery and there was no evidence of improvement in the remainder. Despite its limited success, the project did reveal that transplants could be used to treat severe nerve lesions provided that they were inserted with a minimum of delay after the injury had occurred.
<ibimage>FMMUS126|left</ibimage>
In 1970, Richard was offered the position of Head of the Department of Neurosurgery following the impending retirement of his mentor, Dr Pennybacker, in 1971. After discussions with the Chairman of the Hospital Board of Directors, Richard accepted the invitation on the basis that he would be provided with modern facilities with the Department to be situated in the new John Radcliffe Hospital at Headington, Oxford, still under construction. The Department was also to receive increased funding for development and to further its research. With these assurances he moved to Oxford in 1971.

Though he set about supporting the integration of the impressive neurosciences group in the Radcliffe Infirmary and associated hospitals, he was disturbed to find that new developments in the NHS had led to the Boards of Management of Hospitals, including the Radcliffe Infirmary Board, being disbanded and replaced by Area Health Authorities. As time went by, it became clear that the new Area Health Authority would not honour the agreements made by the former Board, and that the poor working conditions in the Hospital would persist.
Thus when asked by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Bruce Williams to return to the University of Sydney as the first full-time Dean of Medicine, Richard accepted the offer, taking up his post in 1974. According to Professor Young:

<blockquote>His reputation not only as a distinguished clinical and academic neurosurgeon but also as a medical administrator was recognised when he became the first full-time Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974. At the same time he was appointed academic Head of Neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and worked closely with Professor Jim McLeod in developing liaison and integration between the surgical and medical components of clinical neurological sciences.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Following Richard’s appointment as Dean, the Faculty of Medicine underwent enormous change and development. He was responsible for undertaking the establishment of the new Westmead Hospital as Australia’s first fully designed university hospital. During his Deanship a total of 43 new chairs together with supporting staff and facilities were established in the Faculty of Medicine. These positions were in a number of areas including Westmead Hospital, Concord Hospital, Sydney Eye Hospital, in Occupational Health, and in the Department of Public Health (which he saved from threats to its very existence) as well as in the older teaching hospitals, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore.<ref>From Young’s Valedictory for Professor R S Gye in 1992.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>After preparing and successfully implementing the new five-year curriculum despite his reservations on its intensive nature, Richard reintroduced a 6-year curriculum to the Faculty to lessen the pressure on undergraduate students and teachers in 1986.<ref>ibid.
</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean, Richard took an active interest in each of the teaching hospitals, chairing their Boards of Medical Studies, as well as an interest in the administration of a number of institutions and hospitals. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the United Dental Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Area Health Service and Western Sydney Area Health Service.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Postgraduate Committee in Medicine expanded its work and increased its value under the leadership of Professor Gye. The Menzies School of Health Research and the Centenary Institute were amongst his specially favoured enterprises to which he gave invaluable support.</blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean he had commitments to the New South Wales Medical Board, the Menzies Foundation, the Ramaciotti Foundations, the Australian Medical Council and the NSW State Cancer Council all of which called for his help, help that was freely given.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is fair to say that Richard Gye was one of the earlier proposers of the policy of devolution in the University. He could see the value of the Faculty of Medicine developing some autonomy and independence to the benefit of medical teaching and research. He also proposed, at different times, the possibility of a graduate degree being developed within the Medical School of the University of Sydney.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

In 1988, Richard was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for services to medicine.

Since his retirement as Dean, Richard has continued to actively support the Faculty and was instrumental in the development of the University’s Department of Neurosurgery. Before retiring from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1992, he was also engaged as Visiting Professor in Neurosurgery at the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. Following his retirement, he has been appointed Consultant Emeritus to the Neurosciences Centre and has worked as a medico-legal Consultant in private practice.

In 1992, Richard became Emeritus Professor of the University of Sydney.

==References==
<references />

Gye, Richard Spencer Butler

2008-03-16T17:56:59Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS194|right|300</ibimage>
BSc (Med) 1953
MB BS 1955
Hon MD 1993
DPhil (Oxon) MA (Oxon) FRACS FRCS (Eng)

Richard Gye developed the first academic unit of neurosurgery in Australia, and became the first full-time Dean of Medicine within the Faculty in 1974, a post he held for 15 years.

After leaving Knox Grammar School, Richard enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, serving as a Commissioned Officer until the end of World War II. In 1948, he enrolled in Medicine at the University of Sydney, part of a large post-war intake.

His interest in neurology began early in his medical studies when Burkitt, Professor of Anatomy, requested that he review the vascular components of the optic radiation of the human brain. He was one of the first students to spend a year with Dr (later Professor) Peter Bishop whilst working for a Bachelor of Science (Medical) degree in the field of neurophysiology. He graduated with honours in 1953, obtaining, his MB BS, also with honours, in 1955.

Richard was then appointed Resident Medical Officer at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he became interested in surgery and gained his Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was later appointed Professorial Surgical Registrar to John Loewenthal, and was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship in 1960 to further his studies and clinical experience in neurosurgery in Oxford.

Dr Pennybacker, Head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, accepted Richard as House Officer, later appointing him as Senior Registrar to the Infirmary, one of four neurosurgical centres established in the 1930s and situated in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford. (The Oxford Unit was developed by Professor Sir Hugh Cairns, originally from South Australia.) Providing neurosurgical services to over four million people, the demands in the Department were heavy and constant, and Richard was grateful for the wealth of training, guidance and clinical experience he obtained.
In 1961 he was admitted as a Member of Worcester College, Oxford, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis, A Clinical and Experimental Study of Chronic Sub-dural Effusions, based on extensive clinical and laboratory studies, demonstrating that postural intracranial pressure changes were responsible for the lesions following mild head injuries in elderly patients with cerebral atrophy.

Richard returned to Sydney in 1964 to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Surgery (Neurosurgery) at the University of Sydney, where he developed the first academic unit of Neurosurgery in Australia. His clinical work took place at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was later made Head of the Department of Neurosurgery.

Richard was also appointed Head of Neurosurgery at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord where he and James McLeod integrated the practice of neurology and neurosurgery. In response to a request from the Health Department in Fiji, they visited Suva at least twice a year providing a clinical neurology and neurosurgery service over a period of five years.

In 1968, they began to investigate the possibility of peripheral nerve transplants for loss of more than 5cm of nerve in soldiers wounded in Vietnam. These extensive wounds were difficult to treat by conventional techniques, and they proposed to examine the feasibility of transplants in experimental animals. John Pollard (now Bushell Professor of Neurology) undertook the project as a PhD study in 1969, and demonstrated that with the use of immunosuppressive agents, regeneration through transplants resulted in a good recovery of nerve function in rats. Mindful of the possible use of nerve transplants in humans, he devised a method of storing nerves for transplantation by freeze-drying and sterilising by irradiation.

Following the suggestion by Miles Little that nerve transplants could benefit leprosy patients with severe neuropathy, Richard and McLeod travelled to the East Arm Leprosy Hospital in Darwin. John Hargrave, Medical Director of the Hospital, felt that some of his patients could benefit from nerve transplantation. Although Richard and Hargrave had reservations that any significant regeneration within the conduit would occur since the nerve lesions were up to 20cm in length and not recent, they performed nerve transplants in a selected group of patients. The patients were post-operatively treated with an immunosuppressive agent, and after three years, two of the 23 patients treated regained good protective sensation, five had a partial recovery and there was no evidence of improvement in the remainder. Despite its limited success, the project did reveal that transplants could be used to treat severe nerve lesions provided that they were inserted with a minimum of delay after the injury had occurred.

In 1970, Richard was offered the position of Head of the Department of Neurosurgery following the impending retirement of his mentor, Dr Pennybacker, in 1971. After discussions with the Chairman of the Hospital Board of Directors, Richard accepted the invitation on the basis that he would be provided with modern facilities with the Department to be situated in the new John Radcliffe Hospital at Headington, Oxford, still under construction. The Department was also to receive increased funding for development and to further its research. With these assurances he moved to Oxford in 1971.

Though he set about supporting the integration of the impressive neurosciences group in the Radcliffe Infirmary and associated hospitals, he was disturbed to find that new developments in the NHS had led to the Boards of Management of Hospitals, including the Radcliffe Infirmary Board, being disbanded and replaced by Area Health Authorities. As time went by, it became clear that the new Area Health Authority would not honour the agreements made by the former Board, and that the poor working conditions in the Hospital would persist.
Thus when asked by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Bruce Williams to return to the University of Sydney as the first full-time Dean of Medicine, Richard accepted the offer, taking up his post in 1974. According to Professor Young:

<blockquote>His reputation not only as a distinguished clinical and academic neurosurgeon but also as a medical administrator was recognised when he became the first full-time Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974. At the same time he was appointed academic Head of Neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and worked closely with Professor Jim McLeod in developing liaison and integration between the surgical and medical components of clinical neurological sciences.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Following Richard’s appointment as Dean, the Faculty of Medicine underwent enormous change and development. He was responsible for undertaking the establishment of the new Westmead Hospital as Australia’s first fully designed university hospital. During his Deanship a total of 43 new chairs together with supporting staff and facilities were established in the Faculty of Medicine. These positions were in a number of areas including Westmead Hospital, Concord Hospital, Sydney Eye Hospital, in Occupational Health, and in the Department of Public Health (which he saved from threats to its very existence) as well as in the older teaching hospitals, Royal Prince Alfred and Royal North Shore.<ref>From Young’s Valedictory for Professor R S Gye in 1992.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>After preparing and successfully implementing the new five-year curriculum despite his reservations on its intensive nature, Richard reintroduced a 6-year curriculum to the Faculty to lessen the pressure on undergraduate students and teachers in 1986.<ref>ibid.
</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean, Richard took an active interest in each of the teaching hospitals, chairing their Boards of Medical Studies, as well as an interest in the administration of a number of institutions and hospitals. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Sydney Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the United Dental Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Area Health Service and Western Sydney Area Health Service.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Postgraduate Committee in Medicine expanded its work and increased its value under the leadership of Professor Gye. The Menzies School of Health Research and the Centenary Institute were amongst his specially favoured enterprises to which he gave invaluable support.</blockquote>

<blockquote>As Dean he had commitments to the New South Wales Medical Board, the Menzies Foundation, the Ramaciotti Foundations, the Australian Medical Council and the NSW State Cancer Council all of which called for his help, help that was freely given.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It is fair to say that Richard Gye was one of the earlier proposers of the policy of devolution in the University. He could see the value of the Faculty of Medicine developing some autonomy and independence to the benefit of medical teaching and research. He also proposed, at different times, the possibility of a graduate degree being developed within the Medical School of the University of Sydney.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

In 1988, Richard was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for services to medicine.

Since his retirement as Dean, Richard has continued to actively support the Faculty and was instrumental in the development of the University’s Department of Neurosurgery. Before retiring from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1992, he was also engaged as Visiting Professor in Neurosurgery at the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. Following his retirement, he has been appointed Consultant Emeritus to the Neurosciences Centre and has worked as a medico-legal Consultant in private practice.

In 1992, Richard became Emeritus Professor of the University of Sydney.

==References==
<references />

Miller, Sir Ian Douglas

2008-03-16T17:53:11Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1920 to 1940]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS228|right|250</ibimage>
MB 1924
MD 1979
Sir Ian (Douglas) Miller is credited with being Australia’s first neurosurgeon, performing the first operation for a brain tumour in 1933. He was one of the founders of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Douglas, the son of a GP, was born in Melbourne in the first year of the last century. He finished his schooling at Xavier College, which he felt had provided him with a good classical foundation, and went to Sydney to study Medicine in 1919. During his university years, he met Alexander MacCormick while he was in the famous Sydney surgeon’s private hospital for the removal of a cyst in his back. While he was recovering, Douglas asked MacCormick if he could come into theatre to watch him, and was delighted to be allowed. He had been observing for many days when MacCormick asked him whether he would like to assist, to which he eagerly agreed. These early experiences were what instilled in Douglas the desire to do surgery when he graduated.

He had spent a year as Resident at St Vincent’s Hospital, when MacCormick generously asked him if he wanted to be his Junior Assistant. Douglas fondly recalls:

<blockquote>Yeah, yeah, 75 pounds a year! So, for that I used to roll up in the early mornings, always started at half past seven, and I lived… across the other side of the harbour, so I had to leave home very early. And we’d work through, always had, every morning he’d have a list of operations. We’d work through those. And drive from one private hospital to another. He had a chauffeur who used to carry the bags in, and the theatre sister always came, and his first assistant, who at the time was Benjamin Edye. And we all went in the car from one hospital to another, and jumped out, and the chauffeur ran in with the bag, and then the theatre sister would go in and set up everything, and then MacCormick and his team would come in, do the operations, clear out. And everything would be put back in the bag, and off we’d go to the next one. It’s very hard to believe these days!
While he was assisting MacCormick, Douglas was also demonstrating in the Department of Anatomy, having to dash off after morning surgery to get to the dissecting room in time.</blockquote>

In 1927, Douglas travelled to England, working as a ship’s doctor for a pound a day. Once there, he was a student at Middlesex University, also doing relief work at Hackney Infirmary, where he gained a great deal of technical experience. His ultimate goal was to pass the FRCS exam, notoriously difficult to pass in those days. He failed his first attempt but passed the second time round. He recalls the whole experience with equanimity, “I came to the conclusion it was a good thing to have failed because I learnt more than I would otherwise have learnt. And then got through.”

Having obtained this qualification, he returned to Australia to do general surgery at St Vincent’s. Brain surgery was all but non-existent in those days, and something Douglas became involved in quite coincidentally in 1933: he was treating a Russian man who had become blind and, having examined him and taken X-rays and so on, Douglas came to the conclusion that his patient had a tumour in his pituitary gland. As there was nobody in Sydney who could, or would, tackle this problem, he decided to team up with the newly appointed Professor of Surgery, Harold Dew. After practicing on dead bodies in the dissecting room and mortuaries, they felt ready to operate on the man. The case was successful and word spread quickly, so that soon they were inundated with neurosurgical problems about which they knew nothing. Consequently, in 1934, Dew arranged for Douglas to go to England to work with Hugh Caims at the London Hospital, where together with Caims, he developed the beginnings of real neurosurgery.

In 1939, he married an Australian woman in Surrey. However, with the onset of World War II, he was sent to Egypt to be in charge of a general surgical clearing place in the Western Desert, and then to an Australian hospital in Nazareth, where he was in charge of surgery. After his success there, he was appointed to Head of the Centre for Head Injuries in Cairo.

Returning to Australia after the War, he devoted himself exclusively to developing neurosurgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and in Sydney, helped by the many ground-breaking advancements in anaesthesia, instrumentation and lighting that were being made at the time, and which contributed greatly to the development and success of neurosurgery.

Douglas quickly became a leading figure in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, becoming President from 1957 to 1959. In that role, he was also fast becoming an important diplomat in medical circles. He travelled to various countries in South-East Asia, both as an ambassador and as a teacher educating the local hospital staff in neurosurgery, an area of medicine in which they were completely undeveloped.

Douglas recalls a surprising response on his trip to China in 1957:

<blockquote>I went… with a special group invited to China – this was very shortly after the Communist Revolution – and 20 Australian specialists were invited for a month. And we went up to China, and handed in our passports of course…some of the chaps got very nervous after this! But they, they looked after us like royalty. It was wonderful, really.<ref>Miller D, A Surgeons Story, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1985.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>… I remember there was a neurosurgeon in… Peking it was then called, and he seemed to be the only neurosurgeon in Peking for… God knows how many million people! And I said to him, “I’m very interested in what you do about head injuries.” “Oh,” he said, “we don’t have them.” I said, “How do you mean you don’t have head injuries?” He said, “Chairman Mao says we are not to have head injuries.” Finish conversation. <ref>All quotes and information have been taken from Blythe, Max. 1993 Interview with Sir Douglas Miller, The Royal College of Physicians and Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences Video Archive MSVA 89. Generously provided by Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences</ref> </blockquote>

Sir Douglas retired from St Vincent’s Hospital in 1960 but remained Chair of their Board of Directors until 1973.

==References==
<references />

Miller, Sir Ian Douglas

2008-03-16T17:52:50Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1920 to 1940]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS228|right|300</ibimage>
MB 1924
MD 1979
Sir Ian (Douglas) Miller is credited with being Australia’s first neurosurgeon, performing the first operation for a brain tumour in 1933. He was one of the founders of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Douglas, the son of a GP, was born in Melbourne in the first year of the last century. He finished his schooling at Xavier College, which he felt had provided him with a good classical foundation, and went to Sydney to study Medicine in 1919. During his university years, he met Alexander MacCormick while he was in the famous Sydney surgeon’s private hospital for the removal of a cyst in his back. While he was recovering, Douglas asked MacCormick if he could come into theatre to watch him, and was delighted to be allowed. He had been observing for many days when MacCormick asked him whether he would like to assist, to which he eagerly agreed. These early experiences were what instilled in Douglas the desire to do surgery when he graduated.

He had spent a year as Resident at St Vincent’s Hospital, when MacCormick generously asked him if he wanted to be his Junior Assistant. Douglas fondly recalls:

<blockquote>Yeah, yeah, 75 pounds a year! So, for that I used to roll up in the early mornings, always started at half past seven, and I lived… across the other side of the harbour, so I had to leave home very early. And we’d work through, always had, every morning he’d have a list of operations. We’d work through those. And drive from one private hospital to another. He had a chauffeur who used to carry the bags in, and the theatre sister always came, and his first assistant, who at the time was Benjamin Edye. And we all went in the car from one hospital to another, and jumped out, and the chauffeur ran in with the bag, and then the theatre sister would go in and set up everything, and then MacCormick and his team would come in, do the operations, clear out. And everything would be put back in the bag, and off we’d go to the next one. It’s very hard to believe these days!
While he was assisting MacCormick, Douglas was also demonstrating in the Department of Anatomy, having to dash off after morning surgery to get to the dissecting room in time.</blockquote>

In 1927, Douglas travelled to England, working as a ship’s doctor for a pound a day. Once there, he was a student at Middlesex University, also doing relief work at Hackney Infirmary, where he gained a great deal of technical experience. His ultimate goal was to pass the FRCS exam, notoriously difficult to pass in those days. He failed his first attempt but passed the second time round. He recalls the whole experience with equanimity, “I came to the conclusion it was a good thing to have failed because I learnt more than I would otherwise have learnt. And then got through.”

Having obtained this qualification, he returned to Australia to do general surgery at St Vincent’s. Brain surgery was all but non-existent in those days, and something Douglas became involved in quite coincidentally in 1933: he was treating a Russian man who had become blind and, having examined him and taken X-rays and so on, Douglas came to the conclusion that his patient had a tumour in his pituitary gland. As there was nobody in Sydney who could, or would, tackle this problem, he decided to team up with the newly appointed Professor of Surgery, Harold Dew. After practicing on dead bodies in the dissecting room and mortuaries, they felt ready to operate on the man. The case was successful and word spread quickly, so that soon they were inundated with neurosurgical problems about which they knew nothing. Consequently, in 1934, Dew arranged for Douglas to go to England to work with Hugh Caims at the London Hospital, where together with Caims, he developed the beginnings of real neurosurgery.

In 1939, he married an Australian woman in Surrey. However, with the onset of World War II, he was sent to Egypt to be in charge of a general surgical clearing place in the Western Desert, and then to an Australian hospital in Nazareth, where he was in charge of surgery. After his success there, he was appointed to Head of the Centre for Head Injuries in Cairo.

Returning to Australia after the War, he devoted himself exclusively to developing neurosurgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and in Sydney, helped by the many ground-breaking advancements in anaesthesia, instrumentation and lighting that were being made at the time, and which contributed greatly to the development and success of neurosurgery.

Douglas quickly became a leading figure in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, becoming President from 1957 to 1959. In that role, he was also fast becoming an important diplomat in medical circles. He travelled to various countries in South-East Asia, both as an ambassador and as a teacher educating the local hospital staff in neurosurgery, an area of medicine in which they were completely undeveloped.

Douglas recalls a surprising response on his trip to China in 1957:

<blockquote>I went… with a special group invited to China – this was very shortly after the Communist Revolution – and 20 Australian specialists were invited for a month. And we went up to China, and handed in our passports of course…some of the chaps got very nervous after this! But they, they looked after us like royalty. It was wonderful, really.<ref>Miller D, A Surgeons Story, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1985.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>… I remember there was a neurosurgeon in… Peking it was then called, and he seemed to be the only neurosurgeon in Peking for… God knows how many million people! And I said to him, “I’m very interested in what you do about head injuries.” “Oh,” he said, “we don’t have them.” I said, “How do you mean you don’t have head injuries?” He said, “Chairman Mao says we are not to have head injuries.” Finish conversation. <ref>All quotes and information have been taken from Blythe, Max. 1993 Interview with Sir Douglas Miller, The Royal College of Physicians and Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences Video Archive MSVA 89. Generously provided by Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences</ref> </blockquote>

Sir Douglas retired from St Vincent’s Hospital in 1960 but remained Chair of their Board of Directors until 1973.

==References==
<references />

Miller, Sir Ian Douglas

2008-03-16T17:52:31Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1920 to 1940]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS228|right</ibimage>
MB 1924
MD 1979
Sir Ian (Douglas) Miller is credited with being Australia’s first neurosurgeon, performing the first operation for a brain tumour in 1933. He was one of the founders of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia.

Douglas, the son of a GP, was born in Melbourne in the first year of the last century. He finished his schooling at Xavier College, which he felt had provided him with a good classical foundation, and went to Sydney to study Medicine in 1919. During his university years, he met Alexander MacCormick while he was in the famous Sydney surgeon’s private hospital for the removal of a cyst in his back. While he was recovering, Douglas asked MacCormick if he could come into theatre to watch him, and was delighted to be allowed. He had been observing for many days when MacCormick asked him whether he would like to assist, to which he eagerly agreed. These early experiences were what instilled in Douglas the desire to do surgery when he graduated.

He had spent a year as Resident at St Vincent’s Hospital, when MacCormick generously asked him if he wanted to be his Junior Assistant. Douglas fondly recalls:

<blockquote>Yeah, yeah, 75 pounds a year! So, for that I used to roll up in the early mornings, always started at half past seven, and I lived… across the other side of the harbour, so I had to leave home very early. And we’d work through, always had, every morning he’d have a list of operations. We’d work through those. And drive from one private hospital to another. He had a chauffeur who used to carry the bags in, and the theatre sister always came, and his first assistant, who at the time was Benjamin Edye. And we all went in the car from one hospital to another, and jumped out, and the chauffeur ran in with the bag, and then the theatre sister would go in and set up everything, and then MacCormick and his team would come in, do the operations, clear out. And everything would be put back in the bag, and off we’d go to the next one. It’s very hard to believe these days!
While he was assisting MacCormick, Douglas was also demonstrating in the Department of Anatomy, having to dash off after morning surgery to get to the dissecting room in time.</blockquote>

In 1927, Douglas travelled to England, working as a ship’s doctor for a pound a day. Once there, he was a student at Middlesex University, also doing relief work at Hackney Infirmary, where he gained a great deal of technical experience. His ultimate goal was to pass the FRCS exam, notoriously difficult to pass in those days. He failed his first attempt but passed the second time round. He recalls the whole experience with equanimity, “I came to the conclusion it was a good thing to have failed because I learnt more than I would otherwise have learnt. And then got through.”

Having obtained this qualification, he returned to Australia to do general surgery at St Vincent’s. Brain surgery was all but non-existent in those days, and something Douglas became involved in quite coincidentally in 1933: he was treating a Russian man who had become blind and, having examined him and taken X-rays and so on, Douglas came to the conclusion that his patient had a tumour in his pituitary gland. As there was nobody in Sydney who could, or would, tackle this problem, he decided to team up with the newly appointed Professor of Surgery, Harold Dew. After practicing on dead bodies in the dissecting room and mortuaries, they felt ready to operate on the man. The case was successful and word spread quickly, so that soon they were inundated with neurosurgical problems about which they knew nothing. Consequently, in 1934, Dew arranged for Douglas to go to England to work with Hugh Caims at the London Hospital, where together with Caims, he developed the beginnings of real neurosurgery.

In 1939, he married an Australian woman in Surrey. However, with the onset of World War II, he was sent to Egypt to be in charge of a general surgical clearing place in the Western Desert, and then to an Australian hospital in Nazareth, where he was in charge of surgery. After his success there, he was appointed to Head of the Centre for Head Injuries in Cairo.

Returning to Australia after the War, he devoted himself exclusively to developing neurosurgery at St Vincent’s Hospital and in Sydney, helped by the many ground-breaking advancements in anaesthesia, instrumentation and lighting that were being made at the time, and which contributed greatly to the development and success of neurosurgery.

Douglas quickly became a leading figure in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, becoming President from 1957 to 1959. In that role, he was also fast becoming an important diplomat in medical circles. He travelled to various countries in South-East Asia, both as an ambassador and as a teacher educating the local hospital staff in neurosurgery, an area of medicine in which they were completely undeveloped.

Douglas recalls a surprising response on his trip to China in 1957:

<blockquote>I went… with a special group invited to China – this was very shortly after the Communist Revolution – and 20 Australian specialists were invited for a month. And we went up to China, and handed in our passports of course…some of the chaps got very nervous after this! But they, they looked after us like royalty. It was wonderful, really.<ref>Miller D, A Surgeons Story, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1985.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>… I remember there was a neurosurgeon in… Peking it was then called, and he seemed to be the only neurosurgeon in Peking for… God knows how many million people! And I said to him, “I’m very interested in what you do about head injuries.” “Oh,” he said, “we don’t have them.” I said, “How do you mean you don’t have head injuries?” He said, “Chairman Mao says we are not to have head injuries.” Finish conversation. <ref>All quotes and information have been taken from Blythe, Max. 1993 Interview with Sir Douglas Miller, The Royal College of Physicians and Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences Video Archive MSVA 89. Generously provided by Oxford Brookes University Medical Sciences</ref> </blockquote>

Sir Douglas retired from St Vincent’s Hospital in 1960 but remained Chair of their Board of Directors until 1973.

==References==
<references />

Phillips, Gilbert Edward

2008-03-16T17:47:20Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1920 to 1940]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS44|right|300</ibimage>
BSc 1926
MSc 1927
MB BS 1929
MSurgery 1936
Gilbert Phillips was one of the founders of the Northcott Neurological Centre. He was the first to study the blood groups of Australian Aboriginals and Maoris.<ref>This profile is drawn from an obituary published in the MJA; regrettably, original publication details unclear.</ref>

Gilbert Edward Phillips was born in Sydney, 1905. He entered university with an exhibition in medicine in 1923. In the following two years he obtained credits in second and third year Medicine, and then proceeded to take a Bachelor of Science in Physiology in 1926, obtaining first-class honours and the University Medal. He continued with fourth year Medicine, also gaining a Master of Science in Physiology, again with first-class honours and winning the University Medal. The subject of his master’s thesis was An Introduction to the Study of Iso-Haem-Agglutination Reactions of the Blood of Australian Aboriginals. A year or so later, Gilbert went to New Zealand to study the blood groups of the Maori and was admitted to kinship of a Maori tribe. (He was to visit New Zealand once more in 1950, as Medical Adviser to the team representing Australia at the Empire Games). In 1929, he obtained his final degree in Medicine. In 1936, he was awarded a Master of Surgery and two years later, became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

In the early 1930s, Gilbert worked as a Liston Wilson Research Fellow, first in the Department of Anatomy for a year. With the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship from 1931 to 1933, he then went to England to work as Research Assistant to Sir Charles Sherrington from Oxford and Professor ED Adrian from Cambridge, publishing work on the sympathetic nervous system, postural reflex action, the cochlea, myotatic reflexes in sympathectomized muscle, and on the perception of flicker in lesion of the visual pathways, et cetera. Gilbert was also Clinical Clerk to Dr Gordon Holmes at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London and Surgical Assistant to Hugh Cairns, later Sir Hugh Cairns, at that time at the London Hospital.

These years with Sherrington, Adrian, Gordon Holmes and Cairns were the formative years of his life, during which Gilbert laid the foundations of knowledge fundamental to the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. His whole life was dominated by the endeavour to integrate all these scientific and practical disciplines in the service of neurology and neurosurgery.

In 1934, on his return to Sydney, Gilbert was made Assistant Lecturer in Surgery at the University and given a full Lectureship in 1935 and 1936, one of the conditions of the Rockefeller Fellowship. At the same time, he was Honorary Neurological Surgeon at the Lewisham General Hospital and carried out work on the general treatment of head injuries. From this time until his death, Gilbert was also Lecturer in Neurology and Applied Neurophysiology in the Department of Anatomy.

Around 1934 he completed his work on myotatic reflexes in association with Stuart Morson, then a student, for which they were awarded the 1935 Peter Bancroft Prize of the University of Sydney. In 1937, as part of his Rockefeller Fellowship, he began visiting the prominent neurological centres in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

During the War, Gilbert served in the Royal Australian Air Force in Richmond, NSW and his services there led to the development of two research centres of the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne. Just after the War, the famous American General, George Patton, was injured in a car accident. Gilbert and Cairn were flown to Austria, but found that little could be done for Patton, who had a fracture of the upper cervical part of the vertebral column.

In the period from 1947 to 1951, he was instrumental in establishing the diagnostic neurological centre later to be called the Northcott Neurological Centre. However, his career was cut short by his untimely death in 1952 at the age of 47.

Phillips, Gilbert Edward

2008-03-16T17:47:00Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Neurology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1920 to 1940]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS44|right</ibimage>
BSc 1926
MSc 1927
MB BS 1929
MSurgery 1936
Gilbert Phillips was one of the founders of the Northcott Neurological Centre. He was the first to study the blood groups of Australian Aboriginals and Maoris.<ref>This profile is drawn from an obituary published in the MJA; regrettably, original publication details unclear.</ref>

Gilbert Edward Phillips was born in Sydney, 1905. He entered university with an exhibition in medicine in 1923. In the following two years he obtained credits in second and third year Medicine, and then proceeded to take a Bachelor of Science in Physiology in 1926, obtaining first-class honours and the University Medal. He continued with fourth year Medicine, also gaining a Master of Science in Physiology, again with first-class honours and winning the University Medal. The subject of his master’s thesis was An Introduction to the Study of Iso-Haem-Agglutination Reactions of the Blood of Australian Aboriginals. A year or so later, Gilbert went to New Zealand to study the blood groups of the Maori and was admitted to kinship of a Maori tribe. (He was to visit New Zealand once more in 1950, as Medical Adviser to the team representing Australia at the Empire Games). In 1929, he obtained his final degree in Medicine. In 1936, he was awarded a Master of Surgery and two years later, became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

In the early 1930s, Gilbert worked as a Liston Wilson Research Fellow, first in the Department of Anatomy for a year. With the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship from 1931 to 1933, he then went to England to work as Research Assistant to Sir Charles Sherrington from Oxford and Professor ED Adrian from Cambridge, publishing work on the sympathetic nervous system, postural reflex action, the cochlea, myotatic reflexes in sympathectomized muscle, and on the perception of flicker in lesion of the visual pathways, et cetera. Gilbert was also Clinical Clerk to Dr Gordon Holmes at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London and Surgical Assistant to Hugh Cairns, later Sir Hugh Cairns, at that time at the London Hospital.

These years with Sherrington, Adrian, Gordon Holmes and Cairns were the formative years of his life, during which Gilbert laid the foundations of knowledge fundamental to the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. His whole life was dominated by the endeavour to integrate all these scientific and practical disciplines in the service of neurology and neurosurgery.

In 1934, on his return to Sydney, Gilbert was made Assistant Lecturer in Surgery at the University and given a full Lectureship in 1935 and 1936, one of the conditions of the Rockefeller Fellowship. At the same time, he was Honorary Neurological Surgeon at the Lewisham General Hospital and carried out work on the general treatment of head injuries. From this time until his death, Gilbert was also Lecturer in Neurology and Applied Neurophysiology in the Department of Anatomy.

Around 1934 he completed his work on myotatic reflexes in association with Stuart Morson, then a student, for which they were awarded the 1935 Peter Bancroft Prize of the University of Sydney. In 1937, as part of his Rockefeller Fellowship, he began visiting the prominent neurological centres in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

During the War, Gilbert served in the Royal Australian Air Force in Richmond, NSW and his services there led to the development of two research centres of the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne. Just after the War, the famous American General, George Patton, was injured in a car accident. Gilbert and Cairn were flown to Austria, but found that little could be done for Patton, who had a fracture of the upper cervical part of the vertebral column.

In the period from 1947 to 1951, he was instrumental in establishing the diagnostic neurological centre later to be called the Northcott Neurological Centre. However, his career was cut short by his untimely death in 1952 at the age of 47.

Dunea, George

2008-03-16T17:30:43Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Nephrology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS103|right</ibimage>
MB BS 1958
FRCP (Lon) FRCP (Edin) FACP FASN

George Dunea began writing his ‘Letter from Chicago’ for the British Medical Journal in 1975, and has published 302 columns to date. He has been Chairman of the Division of Nephrology at Cook County Hospital since 1969.

George graduated from Medicine in 1958 and completed his Internship at the Royal North Shore Hospital, followed by a Residency at the Parramatta District Hospital in 1959. In 1960, he travelled to England and worked at Oldchurch Hospital in Essex and Orpington Hospital in Kent. For the next three years, he remained in England as registrar at various hospitals, as well as having several clinical attachments. He first worked in kidney disease at the Royal Free Hospital in London under Stanley Shaldon, a pioneer in dialysis who had developed one of the first dialysis units in England and initiated percutaneous cannulation of the femoral vessels as a means of accessing the circulation.

In 1964, George decided to further his training in Nephrology by accepting a fellowship in the Department of Artificial Organs at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. There he worked under the direction of Willem J Kolff, who had constructed the first artificial kidney in the Netherlands during World War II, had developed one of the earliest dialysis centres in the United States, and was pioneering cadaver kidney transplantation. According to George:

<blockquote>Stimulated by the work of Dr Yatsidis in Athens, we constructed a “charcoal artificial kidney” for hemoperfusion and attempted to treat patients with renal failure. We thus were the second ones to ever pass patients’ blood over activated charcoal, a method that for some time became popular and widely used for treating intoxications.<ref>From personal correspondence with George Dunea.</ref></blockquote>

In 1965 George moved to Chicago to continue his fellowship at Presbyterian St Luke’s and University of Illinois Hospital, under the direction of Robert M Kark, who had pioneered the introduction of kidney biopsy in the United States. During his fellowship, George carried out research in several fields and described the acute renal failure of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and the nephropathy of brucellosis.

In 1966, he accepted the position of attending physician at Cook County Hospital and in 1969 became chairman of the Renal Division. However, money was scarce, inventiveness called for. George describes how he converted a Maytag washing machine into a dialysis machine:

<blockquote>The washing machine system we used in Chicago was based on an earlier one by Kolff. But whereas he used four shallow coils and no blood pump, we threw out the ringer and connected the drain to a commercially available dialyzer for recirculation and were able to use a regular finger pump to propel the blood. When we had enough funds to acquire regular dialysis machines we allowed the old washing machine to disappear into the bowels of the County Hospital.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

Research was continued in several fields, resulting in the eventual publication of some 150 scientific papers, including on dialysis encephalopathy:

<blockquote>Dialysis encephalopathy due to aluminium interaction was first reported by Dr Alfrey in Colorado. We published the second series in The Lancet, rather dramatically calling it a mysterious and fatal disorder and coining the name ‘dialysis dementia’, which stuck. We later confirmed that it was due to a change in the Michigan Lake water purification system and that indeed it was due to aluminium, as shown by Alfrey.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

Further papers published by his team dealt with developing better ways to treat chronic renal failure, descriptions of various clinical conditions, and basic work designed to stop the progression of renal disease. Numerous fellows were trained in nephrology in association with the School of Medicine, University of Illinois.

In 1975, he began to write a regular column for the British Medical Journal called Letter from Chicago, now called Soundings. As with his other achievements, George is somewhat self effacing:

<blockquote>In 1964 I wrote a ‘Personal View’ for the BMJ. It led to my being invited by their new editor, Dr Stephen Lock, to write a regular letter from Chicago. Others were supposed to write from Leningrad, Paris, Adelaide, etc, but eventually they all dropped out (as they probably had better things to do!). I had not done much non-technical writing before that, and at the beginning found writing somewhat difficult. But my column was strangely successful; I received lots of fan mail from a variety of people from all over the world. Some years ago my former father-in-law, a journalist, commented that it was most unusual for any journal or newspaper column to go on for such a long time. I believe that they may be planning make some changes, but for the time being I am continuing to write – even though I may be burning out and have often thought it is about time to quit.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>
<ibimage>FMMUS254|left|300</ibimage>
According to Yvonne Cossart, George’s column was significant because it provided the British audience with some missing cultural understanding of the practice of medicine in the United States, as they had up to that point only been exposed to highly technical material from there. George’s writing provided the more humane view of the technology used in medicine.<ref>From personal correspondence with Yvonne Cossart.</ref> In his 302 columns, he has addressed a variety of topics on health care under such inviting and humorous titles as Confusion Oriental Medical Records, Sweet and Sour Pills, Psychiatrists in Restraints, Writing about Dying, Hyperactive Judges, Freeing the Women, Swallowing the Golden Ball, Consultants and Consultoids, Dangers of Afghan Food, Venice from the Air, Downsizing a Rhinoceros General, Cunegonde’s ears or multiple medical errors, The Gas we Pass, Au Zinc, Some diseases must Declare Themselves, Client on Diets, If I Ruled the World, Speech that Irritates, and Cats, Mice, and Cocaine.

In addition, he has written numerous scientific articles and edited various journals and texts. He was one of the editors of the Third Edition of The Oxford Illustrated Medical Companion.

In 1991, he became President and CEO of the Hektoen Institute of Medicine that supports research and education through grants, lectures, and learned activities. George remains President and CEO of Hektoen Institute of Medicine; Chairman, Division of Nephrology-Hypertension at Cook County Hospital; and Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois.

==References==
<references />

Dunea, George

2008-03-16T17:10:36Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Nephrology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS103|right</ibimage>
MB BS 1958
FRCP (Lon) FRCP (Edin) FACP FASN

George Dunea began writing his ‘Letter from Chicago’ for the British Medical Journal in 1975, and has published 302 columns to date. He has been Chairman of the Division of Nephrology at Cook County Hospital since 1969.

George graduated from Medicine in 1958 and completed his Internship at the Royal North Shore Hospital, followed by a Residency at the Parramatta District Hospital in 1959. In 1960, he travelled to England and worked at Oldchurch Hospital in Essex and Orpington Hospital in Kent. For the next three years, he remained in England as registrar at various hospitals, as well as having several clinical attachments. He first worked in kidney disease at the Royal Free Hospital in London under Stanley Shaldon, a pioneer in dialysis who had developed one of the first dialysis units in England and initiated percutaneous cannulation of the femoral vessels as a means of accessing the circulation.

In 1964, George decided to further his training in Nephrology by accepting a fellowship in the Department of Artificial Organs at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. There he worked under the direction of Willem J Kolff, who had constructed the first artificial kidney in the Netherlands during World War II, had developed one of the earliest dialysis centres in the United States, and was pioneering cadaver kidney transplantation. According to George:

<blockquote>Stimulated by the work of Dr Yatsidis in Athens, we constructed a “charcoal artificial kidney” for hemoperfusion and attempted to treat patients with renal failure. We thus were the second ones to ever pass patients’ blood over activated charcoal, a method that for some time became popular and widely used for treating intoxications.<ref>From personal correspondence with George Dunea.</ref></blockquote>

In 1965 George moved to Chicago to continue his fellowship at Presbyterian St Luke’s and University of Illinois Hospital, under the direction of Robert M Kark, who had pioneered the introduction of kidney biopsy in the United States. During his fellowship, George carried out research in several fields and described the acute renal failure of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and the nephropathy of brucellosis.

In 1966, he accepted the position of attending physician at Cook County Hospital and in 1969 became chairman of the Renal Division. However, money was scarce, inventiveness called for. George describes how he converted a Maytag washing machine into a dialysis machine:

<blockquote>The washing machine system we used in Chicago was based on an earlier one by Kolff. But whereas he used four shallow coils and no blood pump, we threw out the ringer and connected the drain to a commercially available dialyzer for recirculation and were able to use a regular finger pump to propel the blood. When we had enough funds to acquire regular dialysis machines we allowed the old washing machine to disappear into the bowels of the County Hospital.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

Research was continued in several fields, resulting in the eventual publication of some 150 scientific papers, including on dialysis encephalopathy:

<blockquote>Dialysis encephalopathy due to aluminium interaction was first reported by Dr Alfrey in Colorado. We published the second series in The Lancet, rather dramatically calling it a mysterious and fatal disorder and coining the name ‘dialysis dementia’, which stuck. We later confirmed that it was due to a change in the Michigan Lake water purification system and that indeed it was due to aluminium, as shown by Alfrey.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

Further papers published by his team dealt with developing better ways to treat chronic renal failure, descriptions of various clinical conditions, and basic work designed to stop the progression of renal disease. Numerous fellows were trained in nephrology in association with the School of Medicine, University of Illinois.

In 1975, he began to write a regular column for the British Medical Journal called Letter from Chicago, now called Soundings. As with his other achievements, George is somewhat self effacing:

<blockquote>In 1964 I wrote a ‘Personal View’ for the BMJ. It led to my being invited by their new editor, Dr Stephen Lock, to write a regular letter from Chicago. Others were supposed to write from Leningrad, Paris, Adelaide, etc, but eventually they all dropped out (as they probably had better things to do!). I had not done much non-technical writing before that, and at the beginning found writing somewhat difficult. But my column was strangely successful; I received lots of fan mail from a variety of people from all over the world. Some years ago my former father-in-law, a journalist, commented that it was most unusual for any journal or newspaper column to go on for such a long time. I believe that they may be planning make some changes, but for the time being I am continuing to write – even though I may be burning out and have often thought it is about time to quit.<ref>ibid.</ref></blockquote>

According to Yvonne Cossart, George’s column was significant because it provided the British audience with some missing cultural understanding of the practice of medicine in the United States, as they had up to that point only been exposed to highly technical material from there. George’s writing provided the more humane view of the technology used in medicine.<ref>From personal correspondence with Yvonne Cossart.</ref> In his 302 columns, he has addressed a variety of topics on health care under such inviting and humorous titles as Confusion Oriental Medical Records, Sweet and Sour Pills, Psychiatrists in Restraints, Writing about Dying, Hyperactive Judges, Freeing the Women, Swallowing the Golden Ball, Consultants and Consultoids, Dangers of Afghan Food, Venice from the Air, Downsizing a Rhinoceros General, Cunegonde’s ears or multiple medical errors, The Gas we Pass, Au Zinc, Some diseases must Declare Themselves, Client on Diets, If I Ruled the World, Speech that Irritates, and Cats, Mice, and Cocaine.

In addition, he has written numerous scientific articles and edited various journals and texts. He was one of the editors of the Third Edition of The Oxford Illustrated Medical Companion.

In 1991, he became President and CEO of the Hektoen Institute of Medicine that supports research and education through grants, lectures, and learned activities. George remains President and CEO of Hektoen Institute of Medicine; Chairman, Division of Nephrology-Hypertension at Cook County Hospital; and Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois.

==References==
<references />

Lawrence, James Roland

2008-03-16T17:01:18Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Nephrology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS299|right|250</ibimage>
MM ad eundem gradum 2001
MB BS (Adel) 1954 Hon D Med Sc (USM) FACP (Hon) FRCPE

James (Jim) Lawrence was the inaugural Director of the Renal Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1964. In this capacity, he was a leader in the first successful renal transplant in Australia. He was Founding Director of the Australian Kidney Foundation.

Jim was born in Mt Gambier, South Australia in 1930. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 1954, after which he became Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He worked as a Lecturer in Pathology at the University of Adelaide in 1956 and as a Medical Registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1957. A year later, he was a Barker Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s Department of Medicine.

Jim made the decision to specialise in the emerging field of renal medicine in the late 1950s. This was “a case of good timing because artificial kidneys had just become available, transplants were occurring, and kidney biopsies and immunology were unravelling renal disease”.<ref>Profile of James Lawrence in ’50 Year Member Luncheon 2005’, Australian Medical Association, presented at The Refectory, Holme Building, University of Sydney, 18 June 2005.</ref> Jim obtained a scholarship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to undertake renal medicine research in Chicago, and from 1958 to 1959 he was a Research Assistant and Fellow at the University of Illinois.

Moving to the United Kingdom in 1961, Jim was a Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and then in the Medical Unit of University College Hospital Medical School in London.

He returned to Adelaide in 1964 as Director of the new Renal Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was offered this position at the young age of 33 “because at the time there weren’t many senior doctors who knew much about the new specialty of kidney disease”.<ref>ibid.</ref> In this capacity in 1965, he was part of the first team in Australia to perform a successful renal transplant. He established a renal unit providing care of end-stage renal failure using newly developed long-term dialysis, and in 1965 the first successful renal transplant in Australia was performed in the Unit. The Unit introduced the concepts of integrated multidisciplinary team care, and embarked on collaborative studies of newly recognised renal disease based on renal biopsy and immunology as well as analgesic nephropathy. National networks were built for transplant donor exchange and tissue typing. Jim and his interstate colleagues worked to establish the new medical specialty in Australia and New Zealand, and for many years attracted outstanding academic and clinical trainees in renal medicine from across Australia and Southeast Asia. His energy and leadership saw him elected as founding Vice President, and then President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology 1966 to 1970. Australia made major contributions to the rapidly evolving field of renal disease and its management. As a founding Director of the Australian Kidney Foundation, Jim served on the Board from 1983 to 1999 and was Vice president from 1983 to 1999.

In 1976, he was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney and Foundation Chair at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, which he remained until 1997. As an enthusiastic teacher and leader he played a major role in establishing the Clinical School at CRGH, together with his Academic and Staff Specialist colleagues. From 1988 to 1991, he was Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney.

Jim was active in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, as Censor from 1967 to 1979, Councillor for eight years from 1980, and Chairman and Honorary Director of the Board of Continuing Education 1981 to 1988. He was a Member of the Asian Pacific Committee from 1981 to 2001 and convened the Scientific Program RACP International Golden Jubilee Meeting.

Lawrence made a particular contribution to the evolution of more modern integrated undergraduate and post graduate teaching and assessment in the Faculty. In 1977, he became a Member of the University’s Postgraduate Committee in Medicine, and was Honorary Director from 1989 to 2000. Since its inception in 1978 and until 2000, he convened the Basic Physician Training Program, the Committee’s flagship course. His role in continuing education also extended to the Australian Postgraduate Federation in Medicine, of which between 1980 and 2001, he served as Councillor, Vice President, and President. He was a member of the NSW Postgraduate Medical Council from 1989 to 1994.

Between 1992 and 1998, Jim was Deputy Chair of the Academic Board and Chair of the Committee for Graduate Studies at the University of Sydney. A tribute to Jim and his contribution in these roles was given at his last Academic Board meeting in 1998:

<blockquote>… Jim Lawrence has so unstintingly and generously given of his time, experience, unfailing tact and wisdom to the collegial life and good governance of the University… As Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee for seven years, Jim Lawrence has been committed to both ensuring that our graduate students are nourished and cherished and that the degrees with which they graduate have the highest possible currency. </blockquote>

In this position, Jim also developed the Postgraduate Studies Handbook and instituted the program for supervisor training in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning. He oversaw the enhancement of the postgraduate review process and was responsible for the selection of examiners in consultation and assessment of appeals. His time as Chair was one of reform and resulted in increased accountability of supervisors and standards across all Faculties.

Throughout his career Jim has been an effective member of numerous other Faculty and University committees. He was Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Medical Program and International affairs from 1995 to 2001. In 1985, under the auspices of IDP, he began an association with University Sains Malaysia and for 10 years from 1995, was Senior Consultant Advisor to the USMUS (University Sains Malaysia, University of Sydney) postgraduate exchange education program. In 2005, Jim was recognised for his contribution to the growth of the School of Medical Sciences in USM with the award of an Honorary Doctorate

From 1998 Jim was a Visiting Professor of Medicine at Canterbury Hospital for two years, and Visiting Professor (Physician Education) at Westmead Hospital for four years. Between 2000 and 2004, he was a member of the Academic Council International Medical University, Malaysia.

Jim was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for “service to medical education and to nephrology” in 1993.<ref>Quote from www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 10 January 2006.</ref> In 2002 he was appointed Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and remains active within the University of Sydney.

==References==
<references />

Lawrence, James Roland

2008-03-16T17:00:54Z

Doakaran:

[[category:Nephrology]]
[[category:male]]
[[category:1960 to 1980]]
[[category:Biographies]]
<ibimage>FMMUS299|right</ibimage>
MM ad eundem gradum 2001
MB BS (Adel) 1954 Hon D Med Sc (USM) FACP (Hon) FRCPE

James (Jim) Lawrence was the inaugural Director of the Renal Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1964. In this capacity, he was a leader in the first successful renal transplant in Australia. He was Founding Director of the Australian Kidney Foundation.

Jim was born in Mt Gambier, South Australia in 1930. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 1954, after which he became Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He worked as a Lecturer in Pathology at the University of Adelaide in 1956 and as a Medical Registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1957. A year later, he was a Barker Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s Department of Medicine.

Jim made the decision to specialise in the emerging field of renal medicine in the late 1950s. This was “a case of good timing because artificial kidneys had just become available, transplants were occurring, and kidney biopsies and immunology were unravelling renal disease”.<ref>Profile of James Lawrence in ’50 Year Member Luncheon 2005’, Australian Medical Association, presented at The Refectory, Holme Building, University of Sydney, 18 June 2005.</ref> Jim obtained a scholarship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to undertake renal medicine research in Chicago, and from 1958 to 1959 he was a Research Assistant and Fellow at the University of Illinois.

Moving to the United Kingdom in 1961, Jim was a Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and then in the Medical Unit of University College Hospital Medical School in London.

He returned to Adelaide in 1964 as Director of the new Renal Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was offered this position at the young age of 33 “because at the time there weren’t many senior doctors who knew much about the new specialty of kidney disease”.<ref>ibid.</ref> In this capacity in 1965, he was part of the first team in Australia to perform a successful renal transplant. He established a renal unit providing care of end-stage renal failure using newly developed long-term dialysis, and in 1965 the first successful renal transplant in Australia was performed in the Unit. The Unit introduced the concepts of integrated multidisciplinary team care, and embarked on collaborative studies of newly recognised renal disease based on renal biopsy and immunology as well as analgesic nephropathy. National networks were built for transplant donor exchange and tissue typing. Jim and his interstate colleagues worked to establish the new medical specialty in Australia and New Zealand, and for many years attracted outstanding academic and clinical trainees in renal medicine from across Australia and Southeast Asia. His energy and leadership saw him elected as founding Vice President, and then President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology 1966 to 1970. Australia made major contributions to the rapidly evolving field of renal disease and its management. As a founding Director of the Australian Kidney Foundation, Jim served on the Board from 1983 to 1999 and was Vice president from 1983 to 1999.

In 1976, he was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney and Foundation Chair at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, which he remained until 1997. As an enthusiastic teacher and leader he played a major role in establishing the Clinical School at CRGH, together with his Academic and Staff Specialist colleagues. From 1988 to 1991, he was Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney.

Jim was active in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, as Censor from 1967 to 1979, Councillor for eight years from 1980, and Chairman and Honorary Director of the Board of Continuing Education 1981 to 1988. He was a Member of the Asian Pacific Committee from 1981 to 2001 and convened the Scientific Program RACP International Golden Jubilee Meeting.

Lawrence made a particular contribution to the evolution of more modern integrated undergraduate and post graduate teaching and assessment in the Faculty. In 1977, he became a Member of the University’s Postgraduate Committee in Medicine, and was Honorary Director from 1989 to 2000. Since its inception in 1978 and until 2000, he convened the Basic Physician Training Program, the Committee’s flagship course. His role in continuing education also extended to the Australian Postgraduate Federation in Medicine, of which between 1980 and 2001, he served as Councillor, Vice President, and President. He was a member of the NSW Postgraduate Medical Council from 1989 to 1994.

Between 1992 and 1998, Jim was Deputy Chair of the Academic Board and Chair of the Committee for Graduate Studies at the University of Sydney. A tribute to Jim and his contribution in these roles was given at his last Academic Board meeting in 1998:

<blockquote>… Jim Lawrence has so unstintingly and generously given of his time, experience, unfailing tact and wisdom to the collegial life and good governance of the University… As Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee for seven years, Jim Lawrence has been committed to both ensuring that our graduate students are nourished and cherished and that the degrees with which they graduate have the highest possible currency. </blockquote>

In this position, Jim also developed the Postgraduate Studies Handbook and instituted the program for supervisor training in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning. He oversaw the enhancement of the postgraduate review process and was responsible for the selection of examiners in consultation and assessment of appeals. His time as Chair was one of reform and resulted in increased accountability of supervisors and standards across all Faculties.

Throughout his career Jim has been an effective member of numerous other Faculty and University committees. He was Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Medical Program and International affairs from 1995 to 2001. In 1985, under the auspices of IDP, he began an association with University Sains Malaysia and for 10 years from 1995, was Senior Consultant Advisor to the USMUS (University Sains Malaysia, University of Sydney) postgraduate exchange education program. In 2005, Jim was recognised for his contribution to the growth of the School of Medical Sciences in USM with the award of an Honorary Doctorate

From 1998 Jim was a Visiting Professor of Medicine at Canterbury Hospital for two years, and Visiting Professor (Physician Education) at Westmead Hospital for four years. Between 2000 and 2004, he was a member of the Academic Council International Medical University, Malaysia.

Jim was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for “service to medical education and to nephrology” in 1993.<ref>Quote from www.itsanhonour.gov.au, accessed 10 January 2006.</ref> In 2002 he was appointed Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and remains active within the University of Sydney.

==References==
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