Meet a Specialist - Emeritus Professor Geoffrey John Riley AM

MB  BS FRCPsych  FRACGP  FRANZCP  FACRRM

Honorary Senior Research Fellow

The Rural Clinical School of Western Australia

The School of Medicine

The University of Western Australia

We caught up with Professor Geoff Riley so that you can get to know some of the fantastic Consultants who volunteer their time with the Trust.

What attracted you to go into medicine?

Everyone assumed it was my maternal grandfather, who was indeed a good and inspirational man - Dean of the Medical School in Adelaide; President of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons; Queen’s Surgeon and Knight Bachelor - but actually it was my childhood GP (General Practitioner) who first inspired me. He was a kind man, and even as a child I knew this - that despite his formality and apparent sternness, I knew from his eyes that he was kind. I was intrigued that he asked all the right questions - that he seemed to know what was happening to me. How I felt. Of course, he did! Plus, on his desk he had a huge spider embedded in an even larger chunk of amber. I coveted it!

What branch of medicine are you in?

I had always intended to be a GP and having been born and partially raised in the Wheatbelt (in Western Australia) I was always going to be a country GP. But I won the prize in Psychiatry in my final year at medical school and was soon sent off to London to train as a Psychiatrist. I returned to Perth (Australia) after three years as a qualified Psychiatrist, entered the hospitals to consolidate physical medicine, and after a few more years, went bush as a GP and regional Psychiatrist. I had always been interested in the interaction of mind and body, and the Psychiatry was of course enormously useful in isolated General Practice. After 10 years I was invited to join the University Department of Psychiatry at The University of Western Australia, my alma mater, and ended up as Professor and Head of that department. By then I was also the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. I was subsequently appointed Head of the School of Primary, Rural, and Aboriginal Health Care (effectively the Head of General Practice), and also Head of the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia for seven years. Finally, I spent a year as the interim Dean of the Faculty of Medicine before retiring.

How long have you been involved with the Trust?

I’ve been involved with the Trust for over 17 years – It seemed like such a good idea and thought I might be useful with my experience of Rural and Remote Medicine. The efficiency of the system with which the Trust triages cases and refers them through to Consultants has amply demonstrated that it is both simple for the doctors to use, and highly valued.

Why do you think the Trust is important?

Because it fills a gap – and the subsequent development and demand for the program clearly demonstrated its utility. It provides support to isolated doctors usually in the most medically under-serviced parts of the globe. The UK has always been particularly good at reaching out to poorer countries, particularly in Africa. I was exposed to this in the laboratory in London, where a number of neighbouring labs were developing technology for transportable versions of medical tests that didn't require electricity, such as blood tests. Rural and Remote Medicine is different and difficult, and the Trust was doing something about it. And doing it very well!

Any interesting cases you can share?

Three come to mind. Firstly, a deeply traumatised teenager surrounded by bombing in Yemen.

Secondly, a villager with untreated schizophrenia in Nepal, a day’s walk in the mountains from the Char Bhanjyang Centre for Health, stands out precisely because of its banality. All he needed was cheap antipsychotic medication, which was unavailable to him before the clinic was established. As the saying goes, “a village looks after its ‘mad’”, but the medication provided by the Trust relieves his distress and makes him more manageable for his family and the village during flareups of his psychosis.

Finally, a case of “mass hysteria” (characterised mostly by fainting) in a whole class of girls in a Nigerian village school threatened by militia soldiers. Helping the overwhelmed doctor, nurses and teachers, to understand what was going on, and to be calm themselves, was probably the key, so that they could reassure parents that the girls would settle when separated and taken home to their families. And that they would recover completely.

Your most rewarding case?

Rather than particular patient ‘cases’, perhaps one of the most satisfying aspect of the work has been supporting the doctors, and specifically, educating some individual doctors through repeated contacts.

The work of the Trust is predicated on an overriding ethical issue: the lack of even basic healthcare for so many communities around the globe. Accordingly, working for the Trust constantly throws up examples of this challenge. Furthermore, the doctors are often under-trained, and routinely under-resourced, as they struggle to provide care to their vulnerable patients. That’s why getting to know them over a series of cases has been so rewarding.

How would you like people to help the Trust?

Obviously, people with expertise can simply sign up to help. All organisations need ‘untied’ donations – money which is not specified for a particular purpose, so that organisations like the Trust can use them to cover the less visible operating expenses, as well as direct grants for desperately needed equipment or treatments that the Trust inevitably becomes aware of.