Name: Garry David Phillips
Qualifications:
BSc (Med) Pathology, University of Sydney (1963)
MBBS, University of Sydney (1965)
FFARACS (Endorsed in Intensive Care,1981) (FFARACS,1969)
FACEM (1983) FANZCA (1992)
FFICANZCA (1993) FAMS (Singapore) (1996)
FAMM (Malaysia) (1997) FHKCA (Hon) (Hong Kong) (1998)
FJFICM (2002)
Date of Birth: 7 November 1936
Date of Death: 25 July 2016
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Garry David Phillips was born on 7 November 1936 in Bendigo, Victoria. He attended Marist Brothers College until he was 12 when, following the death of his father, he boarded at St Ignatius’ College Riverview in Sydney. Here, his extra-curricular activities included athletics, rowing and rugby.
On the completion of his schooling, Phillips spent three months in a seminary, decided he didn’t want to pursue a religious life and in 1956 went to Papua New Guinea as a Cadet Patrol Officer with the Department of Native Affairs.
During his time in PNG he witnessed the trauma, chronic illnesses and infections of the local population, as well as contracting malaria, hepatitis and dengue himself. These experiences helped him make the decision to study medicine.
He graduated MBBS from University of Sydney in 1965, following completion of a BSc (Med) Pathology in 1963.
Phillips undertook his residency at Mersey General Hospital in Tasmania in 1966. Negative experiences surrounding the birth of his first child were the catalyst for him to return to Sydney with his small family and pursue anaesthesia as a career. He became a Fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthesia, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FFARACS) in 1969.
In 1970, after a European family holiday and a brief term as Locum Consultant Anaesthetist at Bury St Edmonds and Newmarket hospitals, Phillips took on the position of Research Senior Registrar with the Magill Department of Anaesthetics at Westminster Hospital.
Following the research position, Phillips spent six months in Stockholm and six months in Toronto, where he held the position of Clinical Fellow, Intensive Care Unit at The Hospital for Sick Children.
The Phillips family, now including three children, arrived in Sydney in 1973 where Garry took up the foundation position of Director of Intensive Care at St George Hospital. Professor Garry Phillips was a foundation Fellow of ANZCA, and was elected President in 1996. Phillips retired from ANZCA in 2005, at which time he was awarded the Robert Orton Medal for distinguished service, ANZCA’s highest award. That same year he was also appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to medicine, “particularly in the areas of anaesthesia, intensive care and emergency care, and to medical education”.
In 1975 he was appointed Director, Intensive Care at Flinders Medical Centre, working with Professor Michael Cousins. At this time, Phillips was also a founding member of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, for which he also drafted the constitution.
In 1982, Phillips was appointed as Director of Accident and Emergency, without relinquishing his directorship of Intensive Care. He maintained this until 1989 when the first specialist in Emergency Medicine, Chris Baggoley, returned from Ontario and took on the role of Director. The previous year, 1988, Phillips had become an instructor for the Emergency Management of Severe Trauma (EMST) course held by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was also a foundation Fellow of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine.
REFERENCES
Information for this biography came from a CV and biography prepared by Prof Phillips and held in the ANZCA Archive.
IMAGES
- Gary David Phillips, 1992