Westmead
Even while at Camperdown, Neil worked at Westmead Hospital up until the two departments merged at the new hospital in 1995.
As told by Dr Peter Gibson…
I think Neil relished working at Westmead Hospital. It was a big, busy unruly place that had no Royal in its name. It was easy to try new things and the staff meetings were nothing if not entertaining. There was a big neonatal and trauma load and busy on-call. Neil, as throughout his career, was always calm and considered. He always hid his great intellect and clinical acumen behind a larrikin exterior and a colourful turn of phrase. He would feign surprise at some practices that were pushing the envelope at the time, “You did what? Faaaarken hell!” but you always felt reassured by his presence. “All will be well, Streety’s here,” you thought, when he was around with the sickest little patients. Neil was “patient-centered” before it was named as a thing to be.
Neil was always respectful to and interested in all staff. He remembered their names and talked to them about things that mattered to them. Some of the orderlies at Westmead adults came up to me this week, 25 years after he stopped working there, remembering Neil as a wonderful bloke to work with. He of course sought out and became friends with the biomedical engineers and loved to tinker with equipment. We got to try his reusable ECG pads and his mirror for checking prone patient’s eyes. He really missed the precordial stethoscope so he made one with a transmitter for use in the CT scanner and we could listen with an earplug from the control room.
The fact that Neil worked at and had the greatest respect across the two institutions made the eventual merger much easier, at least for those of us who had been working here in the west. He was our friend and in his own quiet way gave us confidence that we could contribute.
In 1995, the Departments came together in the new hospital…
New Things
A new joint came with a series of firsts. Neil was an integral member of the team who commenced paediatric liver transplantation inside the walls of the children’s hospital in 1998. He was part of the group refining approaches for managing children having spinal surgery. He was a vital member of the paediatric cardiac anaesthesia team, there as new possibilities for neonatal heart surgery became the norm. Across the hospital he was known as a clinician with peerless technical skills and a deeply compassionate approach to caring for kids and their families.
Colleague, friend.
For colleagues he was universally admired for his keen intellect, unwavering dedication to children and generous encouragement and support of all those he worked with. Any doctor, nurse, engineer, perfusionist, or porter could count on Neil as a friend ready for a chat, a moment of inspiration and, always, a laugh.
From his arrival at Westmead in 1995 to a semi-retirement in 2019, Neil was the heart and soul of the department of anaesthesia at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.