People In Health Care
Professor Hugh Grantham, Chair of Emergency Medicine Foundation
Filmed Adelaide, South Australia | September 2024
“The problem of blockages shows up in ambulance ramping and long wait times, but this is a complex issue requiring whole-of-health system solutions,” according to Professor Hugh Grantham, Chair of Emergency Medicine Foundation in an interview with Australian Health Journal.
Professor Grantham says, “One of the biggest concerns for emergency medicine is how to enhance patient flow from arrival at an emergency department to treatment, potential admission, and finally discharge from hospital.”
“There are also out-of-hospital factors including access to GPs and the need for more community care of vulnerable patient groups such as aged care and mental health patients.”
Born and educated in England, Professor Hugh Grantham has interests in prehospital and emergency medicine, medical education and clinical governance.
After relocating, Hugh commenced general practice in Mildura and was recruited to lead the Ambulance Service’s clinical development in Adelaide. He was Medical Director of the Ambulance Service until 2011, and inaugural professor of paramedics at Flinders University until 2019. Involved in postgraduate medical emergency education since 1990, Hugh developed the paramedic course, and the postgraduate paramedic courses.
He is the senior educator for the National Advanced Life Support program as well as teaching for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the College of Sports Physicians. Hugh holds the humanitarian services medal for leading overseas aid teams in disasters, and the Ambulance Service Medal. He was a member of the EMF Research Evaluation Panel and is a current member of the Research Committee.
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World first in rural and remote nursing
In March 2023, the Australian Government released the National Rural and Remote Nursing Generalist Framework 2023–2027. The Framework is a world first and describes the unique context of practice and core capabilities for rural and remote Registered Nurses in Australia.
The Framework was developed by the Office of the National Rural Health Commissioner and Australian Health Journal spoke with National Rural Health Commissioner, Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart, and Deputy National Rural Health Commissioner – Nursing and Midwifery, Adjunct Professor Shelley Nowlan, on the importance of rural and remote nursing and of the Framework itself.
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Prioritising Oral Health in Aged Care and Disability Support
Leonie Short is a Dental Practitioner and Dental Therapist. She started working as a dental therapist in Rural NSW and then moved into being an academic and researcher. Through her career, Leonie has worked at 6 universities across New South Wales and Queensland, and remaining community focused.
Leonie’s mission is to have improved oral health experiences and outcomes, however she recognises, the health system really needs to work hard to make it happen and for people to understand why it needs to be a priority.
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Stroke care advances in translated research
New nurse-led protocols for stroke patients, based on ACU research, led by the Nursing Research Institute, have resulted in changes to policy, guidelines and clinical practice in Europe and Australia. The protocols were developed through the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Trial (published in the Lancet, 2011) to manage fever, hyperglycaemia and swallowing (FeSS) post-stroke.
