Dr John Chambers has opened the door for Dr Tim Kerruish to
take over as clinical leader of Dunedin Hospital's
emergency department. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Outspoken Dr John Chambers has stood down after 17
years as Dunedin Hospital emergency department clinical leader,
but he has not finished yet. He is looking forward to being a
full-time specialist without the leadership role. Dr Chambers
reflects on his time in charge of emergency medicine with ODT
health reporter Elspeth McLean.
Straight-talking Scot Dr John Chambers (55) has often hit the
headlines during his 17 years as Dunedin Hospital emergency
department clinical leader, but he says that is "almost in
the job description".
He readily admits he is no shrinking violet, saying emergency
department leaders are there to advocate for their patients
along with their departments.
"I think you will find every doctor in charge of an emergency
department is prominent.
"We are often asked our opinions."
Sometimes the emergency department was "where things are
happening in society" and flagged trends about such things as
drug use and types of accidents.
Since he came to Dunedin in 1993, Dr Chambers has frequently
spoken out about the state of the department, countered
frequent claims too many people were turning up for minor
ailments, and has had to front up in situations when the
department has come under criticism.
In recent times, he even controversially turned to verse,
published on the Association for Salaried Medical
Specialists' website, to vent his frustration with what he
saw as a lack of progress towards improvements in his
department.
Dr Chambers trained in Scotland, worked in England and was in
Adelaide - where he had just finished his training as a
specialist - when he saw the senior ED doctor's job
advertised at Dunedin Hospital.
At that time, the department was led by GP Dr Peter Bamford,
and when Dr Chambers took over, he was the first trained
specialist to take on the role.
At that time, emergency medicine in New Zealand was very much
in its infancy, he said.
During his time in the department, he has seen the number of
doctors - including both senior and junior clinicians -
increase from 7 to 24.
It had also been very gratifying to see the development of
emergency nursing in that time.
Dunedin had an excellent team of dedicated nurses without
whom doctors could not do their job, he said.
He also paid tribute to ASMS executive director Ian Powell.
Senior doctors at Dunedin Hospital had benefited greatly from
his support and input over the years.
Dr Chambers said during his 17 years, the role of the
department had changed considerably.
Today, there was a lot of observational medicine, with
patients in the care of the department for the whole of their
stay, whereas in the past, patients would receive an
assessment in the department then move quickly to a ward.
He had not been in Dunedin long before he was agitating for
improved facilities and was pleased when the department got a
$2 million upgrade in 1998 which was "a great improvement on
what we had before".
Dr Chambers said he was proud of the performance of the
department around the turn of the century compared with other
hospitals.
However, he had always expected that the 1998 upgrade would
only last about 10 years and that had proved to be the case.
Now, the department was not adequate to offer the sort of
observational medicine being practised in emergency medicine.
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