South Australian Medical Heritage Society

	South Australian Medical Heritage Society Inc Website for the Virtual Museum
Home Coming meetings Past meetings About the Society Galleries of the Virtual Museum Main Galleries Medicine Surgery Anaesthesia X-rays Hospitals,other organisations Individuals of note Small Galleries Dentistry Nursing Ethnic medicine - Aboriginal - Chinese - Mediterran	Peter Murray Last (1929– ) As Peter Last moved from one office to another, he took with him the framed Admiralty chart AUS1762, displaying the waters in which he raced and cruised his yachts. Peter Last followed his brother John through Saint Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide, where he graduated MB BS in 1952, culminating as Everard Scholar, being top student of his year. After house jobs at Royal Adelaide and Adelaide Children’s Hospitals he went to Melbourne as Drug Houses of Australia Fellow at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute and Royal Melbourne Hospital under Dr Ian Wood (later Sir Ian). This was followed by a year as Clinical Pathology Registrar, during which he became a Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (MRACP). There followed a year in general practice in southern suburban Adelaide to earn enough to follow the then traditional course of a journey to England. This was to a succession of posts at the (not yet Royal) Postgraduate School of Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, where he worked under the eminent expert in liver disease Sheila Sherlock and the outstanding neurologist Christopher Pallis. In 1959 he passed the highly competitive examination to become a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). Returning to Adelaide he was appointed Senior Medical Registrar at Royal Adelaide, The Queen Elizabeth and back to Royal Adelaide Hospitals. He established renal dialysis services in South Australia and taught many young graduates the techniques of liver and renal biopsy. He was first drawn into clinical administration when he acted as Medical Superintendent of RAH in 1963. In 1964 he moved to the Repatriation General Hospital at Daw Park as Senior Specialist Physician and was simultaneously a member of the Honorary Medical Staff at RAH. He was much involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, including ten years as medical tutor to Lincoln College. He served on the Faculty of Medicine at Adelaide University and on state and national committees of the RACP. In hospital clinical practice he introduced innovations that mostly survived. One was recording family histories as family trees to show sibling order, and another was to introduce problem-oriented records promptly after publication of the seminal articles of LL Weed. In 1972 he began a succession of posts in the Hospitals Department, which in 1978 was absorbed into the South Australian Health Commission. Here he was much involved in policy development at both state and national levels, particularly in long-term care, domiciliary care services and rehabilitation. For eight years he was a principal contact between the 57 country hospitals and the state minister of health through the central bureaucracy. He was elevated to Fellowship of the two Royal Colleges of Physicians and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators. 1983 brought another change, to become inaugural Clinical Superintendent of Julia Farr Centre, the country’s largest nursing home. There was a notional establishment of 820 beds, of which 640 were occupied. The place had not kept up with current and developing trends in care and administration, clinical and otherwise. Peter Last applied his wide and long experience in many ways, ranging from clinical records through team management and application of the concepts of normalization and empowerment of residents. He was instrumental in the development of the South Australian Head Injury Service, which was first based at the Centre. He retired in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to medicine. His principal extracurricular activity has been yachting, and he was elected to Life Membership of Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron. His definitive history of Commonwealth Government Repatriation services in South Australia¹ was published by the RGH (DP): ¹Last PM. The Repat: A Biography of Repatriation General Hospital (Daw Park) and A History of Repatriation Services in South Australia. 1994, Adelaide. Repatriation General Hospital ISBN 0 646 13843 X. -o0o-

South Australian Medical Heritage Society Inc

Website for the Virtual Museum

Home
Coming meetings
Past meetings
About the Society

Galleries of the Virtual Museum

Main Galleries

Medicine
Surgery
Anaesthesia
X-rays
Hospitals,other organisations
Individuals of note

Small Galleries

Dentistry
Nursing

Ethnic medicine
     - Aboriginal
     - Chinese
     - Mediterran

Peter Murray Last (1929– )

As Peter Last moved from one office to another, he took with him the framed Admiralty chart AUS1762, displaying the waters in which he raced and cruised his yachts.

Peter Last followed his brother John through Saint Peter’s College and the University of Adelaide, where he graduated MB BS in 1952, culminating as Everard Scholar, being top student of his year.

After house jobs at Royal Adelaide and Adelaide Children’s Hospitals he went to Melbourne as Drug Houses of Australia Fellow at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute and Royal Melbourne Hospital under Dr Ian Wood (later Sir Ian). This was followed by a year as Clinical Pathology Registrar, during which he became a Member of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (MRACP).

There followed a year in general practice in southern suburban Adelaide to earn enough to follow the then traditional course of a journey to England. This was to a succession of posts at the (not yet Royal) Postgraduate School of Medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, where he worked under the eminent expert in liver disease Sheila Sherlock and the outstanding neurologist Christopher Pallis. In 1959 he passed the highly competitive examination to become a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP).

Returning to Adelaide he was appointed Senior Medical Registrar at Royal Adelaide, The Queen Elizabeth and back to Royal Adelaide Hospitals. He established renal dialysis services in South Australia and taught many young graduates the techniques of liver and renal biopsy. He was first drawn into clinical administration when he acted as Medical Superintendent of RAH in 1963.
In 1964 he moved to the Repatriation General Hospital at Daw Park as Senior Specialist Physician and was simultaneously a member of the Honorary Medical Staff at RAH. He was much involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, including ten years as medical tutor to Lincoln College. He served on the Faculty of Medicine at Adelaide University and on state and national committees of the RACP. In hospital clinical practice he introduced innovations that mostly survived. One was recording family histories as family trees to show sibling order, and another was to introduce problem-oriented records promptly after publication of the seminal articles of LL Weed.

In 1972 he began a succession of posts in the Hospitals Department, which in 1978 was absorbed into the South Australian Health Commission. Here he was much involved in policy development at both state and national levels, particularly in long-term care, domiciliary care services and rehabilitation. For eight years he was a principal contact between the 57 country hospitals and the state minister of health through the central bureaucracy.

He was elevated to Fellowship of the two Royal Colleges of Physicians and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators.

1983 brought another change, to become inaugural Clinical Superintendent of Julia Farr Centre, the country’s largest nursing home. There was a notional establishment of 820 beds, of which 640 were occupied. The place had not kept up with current and developing trends in care and administration, clinical and otherwise. Peter Last applied his wide and long experience in many ways, ranging from clinical records through team management and application of the concepts of normalization and empowerment of residents. He was instrumental in the development of the South Australian Head Injury Service, which was first based at the Centre.

He retired in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to medicine.

His principal extracurricular activity has been yachting, and he was elected to Life Membership of Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron.

His definitive history of Commonwealth Government Repatriation services in South Australia¹ was published by the RGH (DP):

¹Last PM. The Repat: A Biography of Repatriation General Hospital (Daw Park) and A History of Repatriation Services in South Australia. 1994, Adelaide. Repatriation General Hospital ISBN 0 646 13843 X.

-o0o-