A chapter in the evolution of paediatrics in Australia
Introduction
Participants
Origins of the Department
Key dates in the evolution of a University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics
Early developments
Leadership
New directions in patient care, research and teaching
Ethical issues in research and treatment
Formalising the research effort
Training Programs
Surgical research and training
Finding funds for research
Establishing sub-specialty departments
More on medical education
Academic outreach
Endnotes
Index
Search
Help
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Key dates in the evolution of a University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics
| 1862: | University of Melbourne establishes a medical school with an intake of three students, becoming it the first University in the southern dominions of the British Empire to teach undergraduate medicine. |
| 1867: | University of Melbourne appoints a lecturer in obstetrics and diseases of children at the Lying-in Hospital (later the Women's Hospital). |
| 1870: | Melbourne Hospital for Sick Children (later Children's Hospital) opens in Carlton with six beds. |
| 1882: | Medical students receive Lectures in Diseases of Children at the Hospital for Sick Children for the first time. |
| 1900: | University of Melbourne invites the Children's Hospital to appoint a staff member to join the Faculty of Medicine and the Hospital selects Dr William Snowball. |
| 1911: | Medical students are required for the first time to attend the Children's Hospital for teaching in diseases of children or risk failure. |
| 1921-29: | University of Melbourne Professor of Anatomy, Richard Berry, appointed honorary psychometrician to the Children's Hospital |
| 1948: | University suggests the Hospital appoints a full-time Clinical Supervisor to oversee undergraduate teaching. |
| 1949: | Faculty of Medicine approves in principle the payment of hospital staff for clinical teaching |
| 1949: | The Hospital's Clinical Research Unit (which became operational in 1948) requests that the University recognise it. |
| 1950: | Dr Bob Southby appointed Lecturer in Diseases of Children at the Hospital, an appointment paid for by the University for the first time. |
| 1951: | University passes Regulations allowing students to carry out research for postgraduate degrees at the Hospital. |
| 1952: | Agreement between the University of Melbourne and the Children's Hospital is ratified. |
| 1952: | Faculty of Medicine agrees to extend student's term of attendance at the Hospital from two to three months. |
| 1953: | The Hospital becomes the Royal Children's Hospital and the University classifies the Hospital as a Special Training Hospital. |
| 1959: | Creation of University of Melbourne Stevenson Chair in Child Health following a donation from Mrs Hilda Stevenson, Vice-President of the Children's Hospital Board of Management. |
| 1965: | [Stevenson] Chair in Child Health re-named [Stevenson] Chair in Paediatrics. |
| 1983: | Chair in Paediatric Research established. |
| 1984: | Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry established. |
| 1988: | Chair in Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery established. |
| 1991: | Chair in Adolescent Health established. |
| 1994: | Chairs in Paediatric Surgery, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, and of Community Child Health established. |
| 1995: | Chair in Paediatric Critical Care and Research Chair in Genetics established. |
The move towards a University Department of Paediatrics intensified from the late 1940s. In 1948, the University suggested appointing a full-time Clinical Supervisor to oversee the training of medical undergraduates at the Children's [as well as the Women’s] Hospital.[18]
The following year, Dr Howard Williams began weekly clinical meetings for Registrars and Residents. Also that year, the Dean of the Children's Hospital Clinical School, Dr Boyd Graham,[19] put a strong case to the Faculty of Medicine that the undergraduate course in paediatrics should be extended from two months to three months, in line with overseas developments. He argued that the course should be largely paediatric medicine, with paediatric surgery subordinate. And the Faculty agreed in principle to the extension.
Also in 1949, the Faculty of Medicine approved in principle the payment of hospital staff by the University for clinical teaching. That hadn't been done before [at the other Melbourne teaching hospitals; the Royal Melbourne, Alfred, St Vincent’s and Women’s]. The following year, Dr Bob Southby[20] was appointed Lecturer in Diseases of Children at the Children’s Hospital.
In 1951, the University passed regulations allowing students to carry out research for postgraduate degrees at the Children's Hospital and, in 1953, the Hospital was classified as a special training hospital.
In 1958, funding for a Chair in Child Health was forthcoming. In that year, Mrs (later Dame) Hilda Stevenson, who was Vice-President of the Committee of Management of the Children's Hospital, donated either £80,000 or £100,000 to endow a Chair in Child Health.[21] Before today’s meeting, I spoke to various people about that particular event, including Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, who was President of the Board. Dame Elisabeth’s understanding was that the money was actually given to the Faculty of Medicine in a general way and hadn’t necessarily been ear-marked for a Chair. But in discussion, the idea emerged that it would be very important for the status of the Children’s Hospital and for the University if a Professorship was established. I believe the University of Sydney already had a Professor of Child Health at this stage.
David McCredie: I don't know when this was, but the Professor was Lorimer Dods.[22]
Ann Westmore: So, perhaps there was a view that the University of Melbourne needed to do something equivalent [to what the University of Sydney was doing]. That something happened in 1959, when Dr Vernon Collins[23] was appointed inaugural Stevenson Professor of Child Health. Later on, at the very beginning of 1963, the Hospital moved from Carlton to its current site at Parkville and in February of that year, the new Hospital was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
I will now call on those who have some recollections of the early University Department of Paediatrics to tell us about it.
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