Medical politician and diplomat
Peter Stone, immediate past president of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, has an ideal background for the position with experience in both remote rural practice and metropolitan practice. He has had wide experience in medical education and medical politics and has earned the respect of all parties for his outstanding communication and interpersonal skills.
Peter Stone has always shown leadership qualities and has been a prolific worker on several medical educational and political bodies.
Always appearing relaxed and gentlemanly he has developed a reputation as an astute and amiable negotiator for better standards for general practice. His interest and expertise in policy and planning development in recent years have been invaluable in the difficult and emotional field of medical politics.
Peter was born in 1930 in Hawthorn, Melbourne, in the hospital (now Cedar Court) where his wife, Jillian, works as a psychologist. His family includes eight children and one grand-daughter.
Academic and medical background
Following primary education at Our Lady of Victories, Camberwell, and secondary education at De La Salle, Malvern, Peter was admitted to medical school at the University of Melbourne where he graduated MB BS.
Following residency training at Wangaratta Base Hospital from 1957 to 1958, he became an assistant general practitioner at Benalla before entering solo practice in the rather remote Victorian town of Orbost in East Gippsland. He was in solo practice here for eight years (1959-1967) where he developed an excellent reputation for his general skills, caring and responsible practice and for his surgical skills for the many accidents, especially hand injuries, in this timber industry area.
For family reasons he returned to Melbourne, and after two years in group practice in Essendon he entered a two doctor practice in Hawthorn in 1970 and has practised there for the past 24 years.
Special medical interests
In rural practice Peter was very interested in procedural medicine, including full scale obstetric care, trauma and general surgery, primary repair of hand injuries and anaesthetics.
In city practice he initially maintained his interests in anaesthetics and surgery but gradually relinquished these services. In recent years he has developed special skills in psychological medicine, hypnosis, palliative care and geriatric medicine within the context of general practice.
Academic general practice
Peter has always had a deep commitment to academic general practice and after obtaining Fellowship of the RACGP by examination in 1968 he became heavily involved with the educational activities of the College. He was Chairman of the Medical Education Committee of the College from 1973-1976 and worked half-time in the establishment phase of the Family Medicine Programme during those years.
In addition, he was involved in undergraduate education and his wide experience as a rural and city practitioner gave him a real doctor image to the medical students. He was appointed senior lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Monash University from 1969 and 1975 and then helped Neil Carson establish the fledgling Department of Community Medicine. Peter became renowned for the excellent role plays in a series of videotapes on common problems in general practice. These tapes were widely studied by the students in the introduction to the clinical and communication skills component of this course which was visionary and innovative in the Seventies.
His many other teaching involvements including lecturing in the Department of Psychological Medicine at Monash University and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. He developed teaching programs with the Australian Society of Hypnosis and was Chairman of the WONCA Psychological Medicine Committee from 1974-6.
Policy and planning development
In recent years, Peter has developed a working interest in policy and planning development. This has been evidenced by the following:
- Gained Graduate Diploma in Organisation Behaviour, Swinburne University 1987;
- Current Chairman of Victorian State Specialist Recognition Committee, therefore member of NSQAC (National Specialist Qualification Advisory Committee);
- Member of Executive of Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC);
- Member of Australian Medical Council (nominated by the Medical Colleges);
- Chairman of CPMC Working Party on Restructuring the Profession;
- Honorary secretary, Victorian Post-Graduate Medical Foundation.
He is also a member of numerous other committees and working parties.
He was appointed president of the RACGP in 1992 and completed this two year term of office in September 1994.
Extracurricular interests
At University, Peter was active in his special areas of interest: traditional jazz, the Army Reserve, Rugby Union football and politics. Since then his interests have been mainly rustic. In country practice he was interested in local development and became involved in farming and the timber industry and conservation. He has a property in East Gippsland which he visits mainly for recreational purposes.
Sound advice
Peter rates some advice from a physician as his 'most significant medical experience'. "On the night of the issue of our final results, we gave a dinner for our clinical teachers. My results gave me a choice of intern posts and I assumed that I should select a major teaching hospital - aiming for rural general practice. Physician Dr H B (Ted) Kay focused his usual steely gaze upon me when I told him this and said, 'Rubbish get to a good base hospital where there are keen clinical teachers who will let you do the work.'
"This advice struck me at a critical moment and my rural ambitions were confirmed by that advice.
"The other most significant experience was becoming used to the spotlight of constructive but unrelenting critical appraisal which these country specialist and GP clinical teachers imposed on their own work as well as mine. I learnt that integrity had more to do with quality in medical practice than pure knowledge or procedural skill."
'I can laugh now'
"A 60 year old timberworker was brought to my surgery early one Sunday morning - aphonic and cyanosed - asphyxiating with a piece of meat stuck in his throat after a heavy drinking episode. He was in no condition to transport the 100 miles to more expert care. In the darkened hospital theatre with the matron standing at my elbow I removed pieces of meat through a rigid gastroscope for some time from the anaethetised patient without making much impression on the apparently endless mass of protein.
"Eventually I ensured that there was no attachment to the surrounding anatomy. With a long alligator forceps through the gastroscope, I withdrew a slab of meat about 15 cm by 8 cm dangling on the end of the instrument in the darkened theatre.
The matron's knees slowly collapsed and as she sank lower and lower she whispered, 'My God, it's his heart!'
"I didn't see this man for many years, and when I did he accused me of ruining his bar room singing voice. It hadn't been as good since my 'attack' - and I'd had the cheek to charge him 12 dollars!"
... a privileged profession
"When I returned to Melbourne from country practice, I felt that I had options of specialising. Obstetrics, paediatrics, psychiatry all had some appeal, but I decided that by choosing any one of these I would miss out on being in the 'big picture' of life and medicine. I believe that we GPs are a most privileged profession. Through the continuity, intimacy and breadth of our work, we know perhaps better than anybody about the realities of life in our community.
"Through our scientific training we are in a position to understand, explain and apply medical science for the benefit of our patients. Because of our personal knowledge, we can tailor each consultation to gain the best possible outcome for that patient at that time. Sometimes this is a really important intervention in that patient's life. To me, this skill can provide as much joy as the artist gets from ‘getting it all together' in an artistic piece of work.
"Many of the GPs with whom I have worked with taught me how to do this although I suspect they would describe their work in more mundane terms.
"Having had the opportunity to provide a very comprehensive service in a small town, I developed a firm belief that general practice should remain the focal point of an efficient and economic health service. The calibre of GPs whom I have met in the College has reinforced this belief and motivated me towards optimising the central role of the competent GP."
First published in Notable Australian Doctors Series - Australian Family Physician Vol. 24, No. 2, February 1995