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St Vincent’s Hospital Medical Alumni Association

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Welcome to the summer2015-16 e-newsletter of your association.

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In this edition – in brief

Annual Cocktail Party and Historical Talk 2016

St Vincent’s Hospital Medical Alumni Association…………………………………………read more

Medical Alumni Association Annual Golf Day, 2016

The Alumni Association Annual Golf Day for 2016 …………………………………...….read more

St Vincent’s Alumnus wins major research prize

Congratulations to St Vincent’s Alumnus, Dr Peter De Cruz ..……………………….………….read more

Obituary

Mr Kevin King …………………………………………………………………………………...………read more

From the Archives Department………………………………………………………..………….read more

News from St Vincent’s Clinical School………………………………………………….……………read more

News from St Vincent’s Hospital...... read more

Postscript …………………………………………………………………………………..…………….....read more

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Annual Cocktail Party and Historical Talk

St Vincent’s Hospital Medical Alumni Association invites you and your guests to the Annual Cocktail Party and Historical Address for 2016. This will take place on Sunday afternoon, July 31, 2016. The speaker this year will be Dr Lynda Campbellwhose topic will be “Bodies, bits, bugs and blood: A history of pathology services at St Vincent’s”.

Welcome drinks will commence at 4.30 pm with the presentation to start at 5.15 pm. The venue will be the Chamberlin Lecture Theatre on the ground floor of the Aikenhead Wing (use the entrance in Victoria Parade closest to Nicholson St).The cocktail party will follow the lecture and will end at 8.00 pm. More information and a registration form will be sent by email in May.

Medical Alumni Association Annual Golf Day, 2016

The Alumni Association Annual Golf Day for 2016 will again be held at Green Acres Golf Club in Kew. The date for 2016 is Friday April 1st.

Players with official handicaps compete as individuals for a silver cup that has inscribed on it the winners over the last 70 plus years. In addition there will be prizes for the best group of four, the longest drive and nearest-the-pin. Players without current handicaps are most welcome to participate.

For more information or to obtain a registration form, please contact Ms Sue Mabilia on 9231 2304 or by email .

St Vincent’s Alumnus wins major research prize

Congratulations to St Vincent’s Alumnus, Dr Peter De Cruz, who has been awarded the prestigious 2015 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research. Peter undertook his residency and physician training at St Vincent’s Hospital between 2002 and 2009. He also completed his PhD at St Vincent’s Hospital in 2012. His clinical research for his PhD focussed on devising the optimal strategy for preventing disease recurrence in Crohn’s disease after surgery. His postdoctoral training at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge and St Mark’s Hospital, London, was supported by a Churchill Fellowship, Victoria Fellowship and British Transplantation Society Fellowship. He is currently the Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service at Austin Health and Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

Obituary

Mr Kevin Francis King MB BS, FRCS, FRACS

6/5/1933 – 3/7/2015

While Kevin King’s latter professional years were spent at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, he was a St Vincent’s alumnus through and through. Son of the late Mr Tom King who founded the orthopaedic surgical service at St Vincent’s in 1934, Kevin was educated at Xavier College and then studied medicine at Melbourne University. He graduated in 1956 and undertook two years of residency at St Vincent’s in 1957 and 1958.

In 1959, he went to the UK to train in orthopaedics and passed the FRCS England in 1960. He worked as orthopaedic registrar at the London Hospital in 1962-63 and then returned to Melbourne in 1963, initially to take over his father’s practice. Soon after his return he obtained his FRACS. In 1964, he was appointed an assistant surgeon to one of the two Orthopaedic Units at St Vincent’s, headed then by Mr Harry Crock. He also took on sessional work at the Royal Children’s and the Preston and Northcote Community Hospital. Indeed for his entire career, he was dedicated to the public hospital system. In 1965 he volunteered as a member of the surgical team that St Vincent’s Hospital sent to assist the Long Xuyen Hospital in South Vietnam. Throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s, he was Head of the Orthopaedic Unit at the Western General Hospital.

In 1985, he was invited by the Royal Melbourne Hospital to become Head of orthopaedic surgery and had to sever his links with his alma mater. At the RMH, the service flourished under his leadership. He was instrumental in establishing a separate orthopaedic elective surgical service at the Essendon Hospital which had a huge impact on surgical waiting lists.

Kevin was very active in the Australian Orthopaedic Association and served as its President in 1991. Always a keen and incisive teacher and mentor, he played a big role in expanding training posts for orthopaedic surgeons in rural Victoria and in Tasmania. He was also involved in the work of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and served on its Council.

He was an unusual Australian in that he loved and played cricket but he had little time for Australian football. He had a wide range of interests outside medicine and had a special knowledge of English history and of naval battles. He enjoyed home entertaining with family and friends.

Kevin married Patsy in 1964 and they had three children Paul, Catherine and Helen (who died in infancy).

Contributed by Dr Brian Davie and Dr Jonathan Rush who were orthopaedic colleagues at St Vincent’s Hospital, with the assistance of Kevin’s son, Dr Paul King.

News from the Archives Department

The Archives Department at St Vincent’s is now called the Archives & Heritage Centre. The work of the Centre continues to grow and 2015 was a very busy year. The role of the Centre is to collect and preserve items that tell the story of the hospital, from its foundation in 1893 to the present day, and we encourage research into all aspects of this history.The Centre is interested in items that document milestone events and achievements and items that are representative of everyday hospital life.

During the year, the Centre welcomed a number of visitors including:

  • A 100 year old nursing graduate who earlier had donated an album of her written reminiscences, photographs, and cartoons of hospital life to the heritage collection.
  • A group of new medical students of the Clinical School.
  • Managers of the Museum Accreditation Program, (a peer supported scheme into which the Centre has been accepted).
  • Members of a 60 year reunion of nurses who trained at St Vincent’s.

Highlights for the year included:

  • A presentation to the delegation visiting Australia to gather evidence for the cause for canonization of St Vincent's alumnus, Dr Sr Mary Glowrey.
  • Presentation of the Bryan Egan Memorial History Prize in the Michael Chamberlin Theatre. Wonderful entries received included reminiscences of a 1970s overseas fellow working with Bernard O'Brien in the pioneering days of microsurgery, and a history of the hospital's innovative art program.
  • The opening of an exhibition on St Vincent's World War I nurses, launched by academic Dr Kirsty Harris. Guests included representatives from the families of two of the veterans. The underlying research project being conducted by the Centre is gathering biographical information on all 68 nurses.
  • Continued receipt of valuable acquisitions including a collection of the student texts of a 1920’s medical graduate.

The SVHM Archives & Heritage Centre is open Wednesday - Friday by appointment, phone 9231 3040, email

News from the Clinical School

It has been another successful year for the Clinical School in 2015. The graduating cohort have been a fun, cohesive, and very engaged group of students of whom we are really proud. Thirty two of the group will be returning to St Vincent’s, and all students have been allocated intern placements.

The class were in fine voice at the Graduation Mass in Brenan Hall on 5 December. Sr Maryanne Confoy RSC wished the students well on behalf of the Sisters of Charity and the Hospital. She reminded the students to embrace their limitations, to work on what they can, and to recognise and accommodate their limits. Alison Boast was the top St Vincent’s student, and the equal top-ranking student of the year level. She was awarded the Jamieson Prize through Faculty and the RM Biggins and St Vincent’s institute prizes for academic excellence. The winner of the JJ Billings Prize in Neurology was Stephanie Rowe, daughter of Michael (cardiologist) and Annette (clinical skills teacher) Rowe, who are both staff at St Vincent’s.

Drs Annette, Stephanie and Michael Rowe

The Dean’s Prize was awarded to Richard Kelly. Student teacher of the year was awarded jointly to Hamish Scott and Andrew Smith; and Andrew was also awarded the Division of Surgery Prize. Richard Lu, who is returning to Singapore, won the top Scholarly Selective prize for his research completed as a part of the MD course. St Vincent’s had five students in the top ten of the year level, and a great depth of talent in this cohort.

Top student Ms Alison Boast and Clinical Dean, Dr Justin Tse

In relation to teaching, Drs Antony Tobin and ManisaGhani, both from the Intensive Care Unit were recognised for their contribution this year through Michael Rosen prizes. The ‘lumps and bumps’ tradition continues with Frank Incani and Pat Hayes taking these sessions on a Friday. Sadly, John Renney retires from teaching at the end of 2015. The students will miss his entertaining and informative bedside tutorials on acute surgical patients.

Mr John Renney

The Clinical School office has seen a change in staff this year, with Michelle Dellamarta appointed Clinical School manager. Michelle previously worked at PMCV. Kirstin McEvoy and Sue Hill are managing year 2 and year 3&4 programs respectively. Anne Parsons who has been with the school for many years manages medical electives. The Clinical Dean remains Justin Tse and Subdeans are Corinne Tey, Jacinta Mogg and Lauren Sanders.

News from St Vincent’s Hospital

In past editions, we have arbitrarily extracted some news items from the St Vincent’s Hospital monthly newsletter known as the Font and the St Vincent’s Foundation newsletter, known as The Pulse.

Please note that these two newsletters have now merged. To give the reader complete access to this news source, the hospital has provided the following link:

Just click on the link and you will be taken to recent issues of The Font.

Post script

If you have read this far, it is likely that you enjoyed this issue. Did you know we have over a thousand alumni on our books for whom we do not have email addresses? Some of these people might be your colleagues. Please do us a favour by passing this newsletter on to friends or alternatively alerting friends to the opportunity to register with the Association on our web site at And tell them that membership of the Association is free!

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