Ann Westmore: During this transition period when Bernard was moving from being under a Department to more of a Hospital relationship, how was this resolved between you and the Hospital?

Dick Bennett: There were still funds in the University Department books and I was also a member of the Microsurgery Research Advisory Committee. And, with Dr Keane, the Medical Superintendent, all money if it had to go through Hospital channels, he or the Sister Administrator or CEO gave approval.[41] The transition period wasn't all that difficult. I was on both committees, and when the funds in the Department had been fully utilised the project was entirely Hospital-based and then the responsibility of the Hospital finance officer and CEO. They also had some difficult times keeping up with Bernard’s grants and overseas trainees! I wonder if Bryan [Egan] would like to say if I’ve got all that right. It’s a long time ago and it involves things which I think are important and I wouldn’t like to be taken out of context.

Bryan Egan: I think Dick Bennett exaggerates my knowledge and skills. In fact there was very little [relevant] archival material; I couldn't find very much at all. I’m speaking of those years, for instance, where I think Joan would be able to fill in a few gaps. To me, in retrospect, Bernard O’Brien was, for so many years, the man who wasn’t there. Looking backwards, why wasn’t he there? What was going on? How did he come back? I know some of the reasons why he came back. But I can’t fault Dick Bennett’s evocation of those years in retrospect. I don’t think there is any paper surviving which will clarify it. Barbara Cytowicz[42] has some papers from those years which are certainly relevant to Bernard, but not so much to microsurgery. It even seems to me, while listening to Dick, there might have been a Microsurgery Research Unit in another hospital in Melbourne from which Bernard O’Brien might have driven forward the events which have happened at this hospital.

Dick Bennett: As it happens I still have quite a substantial file with many papers relating to activities and events during these years, which I have reviewed in advance of this meeting.

Bryan Egan: It's wonderful for St Vincent’s that it happened the way it did. But I’ve always wondered, or certainly when I was listening to Dick I’ve wondered, what would have happened if Maurice Ewing, for instance, had taken up Bernard O’Brien. Well, personal relationships over at the Royal Melbourne Hospital may have got in the way there, probably did, I think not between Maurice Ewing and Bernard O’Brien, but there were other people involved at the Royal Melbourne which, fortunately for St Vincent’s, would have probably been a sort of frosty wind.

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine