Dr Brent Donovan

I am happily in graceful retirement from my specialty Anaesthesia and would like to reflect not on my career but CTEC’s. During my career I was involved as Chairman of the IHLC, Clinical staff RPH. Australian Society of Anaesthetists (WA) and President AMA (WA) and AMA Federal Councillor. Each had its own rewards and ability to have some influence on Health. At least equal to these roles was my time at CTEC.

It is difficult to imagine but up to 20 years ago the overwhelming majority of skills training was still done on patients. This can never be entirely eliminated but skills training on simulators has minimised this. CTEC changed all that in WA and helped change it on the International stage.

When planned CTEC did not even have a building. The current building was purpose built by The University of Western Australia and they must be given every credit for their vision and commitment. It further came about because of the collaboration, dedication and vision of various groups. These are the WA Government and Health Department lead by Bryant Stokes, The University of WA, the Colleges of Surgeons and Anaesthetists and many dedicated individuals - too many to mention. It should also mentioned that there was support from overseas. In my field,  Anaesthesia, we had support, advice and training from the preeminent  international experts at Stanford University USA and Harvard University USA. They willingly gave their time and expertise. I enjoyed my visits to both institutions to receive training so as to ensure we were up to international standard.

I was proud to be part of the inaugural three person management team expertly lead by Neurosurgeon Richard Vaughan, plus Ron Swann from the Anatomy Department and myself. I am equally proud to see CTEC continue to develop under the current team and hope that in some small way I have contributed.

The lesson of CTEC is that new concepts, even ground breaking ones like skills training at CTEC which change the training methods used for hundreds of years, can be done and comes about with the vision, dedication and collaboration of both individuals and organisations.

CTEC has earned its rightful place on the international stage and has done our patients a great service up to now and I am sure into the future.

Thank you to the University and all others who had the vision and commitment to take a ground breaking concept from an idea to fruition. Thank you also to the current team for carrying the vision into the future.

Our patients are better off for it.