Historical timeline of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

1950s

1950

25 March: Joseph S Collings writesan article entitled ‘General Practice in England Today – A Reconnaissance’, for The Lancet. The article sets out the perceived attributes and deficiencies of British general practice. Collings writes, ‘My observations have led me to write what is indeed a condemnation of general practice in its present form; but they have also led me to recognise the importance of general practice and the dangers of continuing to pretend that it is something which it is not. Instead of continuing a policy of compensating for its deficiencies, we should admit them honestly and try and correct them at their source’.

1952

Discussions are held in London about forming a college of general practice. A steering committee is set up.

Dr WA Conolly writes to the British Medical Journal: ‘As an Australian who has been in general practice for more than 25 years, I would like to add my support to the formation of a College of General Practitioners. If this College is to be founded soundly and expeditiously, I trust the Steering Committee will give to those who practise in other parts of our great Commonwealth the opportunity to co-operate’.

19 November: Britain’s College of General Practice is founded.

1953

1 January: General practitioners are invited to apply for membership of the new college. Australian GPs apply to become, and are admitted as, Foundation Members.

14 June: Dr HS Patterson writes to the Medical Journal of Australia stating that he believes that there is a need for a college of GPs in Australia.

A meeting takes place at the home of Dr Warburton in Pymble, New South Wales. Discussions at the meeting result in the formation of the NSW Faculty of the college on 30 October 1953. Dr WA Conolly is appointed chairman. For the time being, faculty headquarters are located at Cessnock, NSW, where Dr Conolly is in practice. Applications for membership are invited. By the end of the year, a number of GPs have become members.

1954

23 March: The faculty accept the offer of the University of Sydney’s Postgraduate Committee in Medicine to establish faculty headquarters at 131 Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Discussions begin in Queensland about forming a faculty.

27 August: The inaugural meeting of the Queensland Faculty Board is held. Dr P Hopkins is elected Provost and Dr HS Patterson Chairman. The first office of the faculty is located at the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association (BMA).

24 September: The first Annual General Meeting of the NSW Faculty is held. Dr KCT Rawle is elected Provost.

Research committees are set up in each faculty.

1955

30 April: The Queensland Faculty Board recommend that a combined meeting be held with the NSW Faculty Board to discuss the formation of an Australian council.

26 August: The combined meeting is held. Members from England, Tasmania and Western Australia also attend, and it is resolved to take the necessary steps to form an Australian council.

2 September: The first Annual Meeting of the Queensland Faculty is held.

19 November: The British college approves the formation of an Australian council at the request of the two Australian faculties. It donates 200 pounds sterling and office equipment to the council. The officers of the Australian Council are: Dr WA Conolly (Chairman), Dr HS Patterson (Deputy Chairman) and Dr HM Saxby (Honorary Secretary and Treasurer).

1956

18 January: Western Australia Faculty is formed. The officers elected are Dr CW Anderson (Provost) and Dr HEH Ferguson (Chairman).

1 September: First issue of Annals of General Practice is published.

1 November: Victoria Faculty is formed. The officers are Dr RW Weaver (Provost) and Dr MO Kent-Hughes (Chairman). Faculty headquarters are at 132 Grey Street, East Melbourne.

The first research paper is published jointly by the NSW and Queensland faculties. It is entitled ‘Incidence of Eclampsia in General Practice’.

1957

15 January: Editorial on general practice and research is published in the Australian and New Zealand General Practitioner, in which the editor notes the formation of the Victoria faculty. The editor goes on to suggest that the incidence of lobar pneumonia occurring in general practice may be a good research project for the new faculty, as GPs are the first ones to see most cases of this condition. The editorial then says that the conditions of entry to the college might cause a bias in the results of such an investigation. Because the college ought to be composed of ‘the elite of experienced and progressive general practitioners’, any investigation may give too rosy a picture of the position, the editor writes.

5 May: Tasmania Faculty is inaugurated from a practice group that has been meeting since 1953. Dr TC James is elected as Provost and Chairman.

A survey of members regarding the formation of an Australian college shows a positive response.

17 December: Memorandum of association is submitted under the NSW Companies Act.

1958

4 February: Aus tralian college is incorporated under the NSW Companies Act. The memorandum and the articles of association are the result of work done by Dr HM Saxby.

8 February: South Australia Faculty is formed. Dr L Mallen is elected as Provost and Chairman. Faculty meetings are held at the BMA Offices, 80 Broughton Place, North Adelaide.

6 March: The Australian Council decides that it will dissolve on 30 June that year to allow The Australian College of General Practitioners to function from 1 July 1958. An interim council of the college is formed on the same day, with Dr WA Conolly as Chairman.

The interim council adopts provisional regulations prescribing the criteria and procedure for admission. Members have to have been graduated for 7 years and to have been in general practice for at least 5 years; they need to promise to undertake and continue approved postgraduate study while they remain in active practice. Admission of members and associates is, for the time being, by invitation.

Extant bylaws of the faculties of the British college are adopted until the faculties can create new bylaws to be adopted by the Australian college’s council.

The first headquarters are in a suite at 203 Macquarie Street, Sydney, occupied by Dr CWF Laidlaw, a college member. The NSW Faculty also moves its office to this location.

21 November: The first Annual General Meeting of the college is held at Macquarie Street. It is immediately adjourned until 20 March 1959 to allow the President of the British college, Dr ID Grant, to be present.

Dr WA Conolly is elected first President of the college; he also becomes an ex-officio Fellow – the college’s first Fellow.

Foundation Members number 874.

During the formative years of the faculties and the Australian Council, the members of the boards and the council pay their own travelling and hotel expenses. This involves considerable expense and time, not only for the members, but also for their families.

1959

20 March: The adjourned first Annual General Meeting is held in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney. Dr ID Grant, President of The College of General Practitioners, gives the occasional oration. Dr JH Hunt (later Lord Hunt of Fawley), Dr W Pickles and Dr ID Grant of the British college have Honorary Fellowships conferred on them.

21 March Standing committees of council are appointed. These committees are as follows:

• Undergraduate education
• Postgraduate education
• Research
• Preventive medicine
• Publications.

Academic dress to be worn by Fellows and members is approved.

Deliberations continue on the design of the coat of arms.

30 June: Membership is now at 963.

Dr JG Radford lobbies hard to have the college represented on the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

29 September: The second Annual General Meeting is held in the Great Hall of the Brisbane Grammar School. Dr JS Collings delivers the occasional oration entitled ‘A Balance Sheet of General Practice and a Budget for the Future’.

A survey of Australian general practice is undertaken by Dr CC Jungfer. In it he writes: ‘The first obligation of practitioners is to distinguish between those patients with symptoms of serious disease who are small in number and the majority who come with a wide range of conditions, many of them self limited, making certain at all times that an apparently simple complaint is not an expression of a more serious malady’. He makes a number of recommendations concerning increasing the number of GPs, and improving their training, education and distribution.

Council appoints Dr JG Radford as its representative on the National Health and NHMRC, a position he holds for the next 16 years.

Queensland Faculty holds its first Postgraduate May Weekend.