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About me

As an anaesthetist, I prioritize the comfort and safety of my patients during medical procedures. With years of training and experience, I am dedicated to providing personalized care to each patient.

I believe that a friendly and genuine approach is essential to building trust with my patients. I work closely with my colleagues to stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in anesthesia and pain management, and I am committed to making the process as comfortable and stress-free as possible for patients.

Overall, I am proud to be an anaesthetist, and I am committed to providing compassionate, personalized care to every patient I work with. I believe that a friendly and genuine approach, coupled with a commitment to professionalism and excellence, is the key to building strong relationships with patients and ensuring their comfort and safety during medical procedures.

Professional Bodies

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) is responsible for training, assessing, and setting standards for all specialist anaesthetists and specialist pain medicine physicians wishing to practice in Australia and New Zealand.

Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) is committed to providing the community with safe anaesthesia and enabling anaesthetists to achieve best practice to achieve optimal outcomes for their patients.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) is the regulatory body for Australia’s registered health practitioners. Their primary role is to protect the public and set standards and policies that all registered health practitioners must meet.

A few things about me

I grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
I studied medicine in Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
I have worked as a doctor in Nambour, Sydney, England and Scotland.

My anaesthetic training began in Edinburgh, Scotland and was completed in Brisbane, Australia.

I worked at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital as a Staff Specialist Anaesthetist for 10 years.
I now work in private hospitals throughout Brisbane.
I have worked in developing countries over my career.
I have worked extensively in medical education.
I have created a number of medical innovations and started my own medical device company.

Working in developing countries

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Benefits of working in a developing country

Having experience working in different countries and cultures provides a unique perspective on the challenges people face in accessing healthcare, especially in developing countries. This experience can help doctors to better understand the social, economic, and cultural factors that can affect patients’ health, and it can help them develop the skills needed to work effectively in diverse healthcare settings. Additionally, working in resource-limited environments can help doctors develop creative solutions to problems and become more resourceful in their practice. Overall, this experience can help doctors become more compassionate, adaptable, and knowledgeable in providing quality care to patients from different backgrounds and in different settings.

Mekewe – Southern Chile

Quezaltenango – Guatemala

Blantyre – Malawi

Dili – Timor Leste (East Timor)

During my medical training, I had the privilege of spending three months in Southern Chile, living among the remote Mapuche villages. The Mapuche people are an indigenous community that has been deeply affected by westernization, displacement, and illnesses. I worked at an impressive hospital in Mekewe, where western and traditional medicines were combined. Patients received care from both their western medicine physicians and their Machi or Shaman. During my stay, I lived with a local family and immersed myself in their daily life, which included commuting to work with a horse and cart and spending weekends ploughing fields behind a horse. This experience left a lasting impression on me and inspired me to dedicate my career to delivering education and clinical work in developing communities.

In 2004, I had the opportunity to work for four months in Quezaltenango, in the highlands of Guatemala. I worked at a health clinic run by an American NGO that served a large and very remote and impoverished community. Guatemala had only recently emerged from a 40-year civil war, and the scars were still fresh. These rural subsistence farms were left behind in healthcare, but the resilience and determination of the local people to provide a better future for their children were inspiring.

For four months, I worked in Malawi, delivering a program to upskill anesthetic technicians to provide anesthesia for patients receiving ECT treatments. Previously, ECT was delivered without anesthesia, and I developed a process to improve the situation. Malawi faced enormous and multifactorial challenges, which even the most hopeful locals found daunting. Although it was a challenging period of work, it was also a humbling experience that taught me to approach problems with an open mind and an eagerness to learn.

In 2013, I worked for a month in Timor Leste as an anesthetist and educator, partnering with AUS Aid. It was fascinating to observe how far East Timor had come since its independence, but it was evident that they still had a long way to go. Timor Leste is a stunning country with lovely people who are enthusiastic about making their country a thriving one. My work there enabled me to witness firsthand the power of education and how it could be used to catalyze change in a country.