DUNDEE

Dundee Royal Infirmary (D.R.I.) 1960s and 70s

NINEWELLS HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL SCHOOL

The new laboratory in Ninewells Hospital was opened in 1973 when the section from Maryfield Hospital moved there in December. The staff and equipment from the main laboratory at D.R.I. moved to Ninewells on 14th February 1974 and the Neonatal Laboratory followed later that year.

Leon P Farrell, who had been a Senior Biochemist in the department from 1966 to ca. 1970 and, following a period with Beckman, had been appointed as Senior Biochemist at Stracathro Hospital, Brechin, Angus, in 1971, was appointed as Principal Biochemist in 1976. He retired in 1992/93. Margaret CK Browning, who had been appointed a Senior Biochemist in 1966, was appointed as Principal Biochemist (Endocrinology) in the late 1970s and she retired in 1993.

Callum G Fraser was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist in 1983.

Fraser graduated BSc and PhD from the University of Aberdeen. He was a Post-doctorate Fellow with the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa (1969 to 70), Lecturer in Aberdeen (1970 to 75), Chief Clinical Biochemist, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Flinders Medical Centre in Australia (1975 to 83). Fraser published widely on the study of intra- and inter-individual biological variation and the setting of analytical goals for many analytes (by 1995, he had published 117 papers & reviews, 50 papers by invitation, 69 papers, articles and letters, 32 abstracts and 53 conference papers). He was presented with the ACB Foundation Award in 1995. (His Foundation Award Lecture was entitled "Biology - the Basis of Quality".) (ref: 155) Fraser was appointed as Emeritus Professor when he retired in 2006. In 2018 his biography at the University of Dundee indicated that he has published over 300 papers, 13 book chapters and two monographs, "Interpretation of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Data" and the best-selling "Biological Variation: From Principles to Practice": both books have been translated into Spanish and the second into Japanese, Russian, Italian and Turkish also. Following his retiral, he has maitained his onterest in the UK Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot, the development and roll-out of the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme and the assessment of newer faecal tests. He is a founding Member of the Expert Working Group on Faecal Immunochemical Tests for Screening of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Committee, World Endoscopy Organization.

Among the other staff who worked in Ninewells Hospital in the late 1970s and 1980s were :-

Heather M Barbour, who was appointed from Welwyn Garden City as Principal Biochemist in 1982 and was appointed as Principal Biochemist at Edinburgh Western General in 1983,

John E Barclay, who took up an appointment with Technicon in Paris in 1976,

William (Bill) A Bartlett, who was appointed from Northwick Park, Harrow (1976 - 1984), as Senior Biochemist in 1984 and who took up an appointment in East Birmingham in 1991 and was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist in Birmingham Heartlands in 1997/8. He succeeded Callum Fraser as Top Grade Biochemist in 2006 and became an Honorary Member of the ACB in 2019.

Gillian Bernacca from the Glasgow Southern General Hospital was a Basic Grade Biochemist from 1882 to 1984 (ref 170)

Philip Cager, who went into General Practice in 1986,

Manjit S Devgun (1976 - 1983), who was appointed as Senior Biochemist in Law Hospital, Lanarkshire in 1983,

John Doran, who was appointed as Consultant in Peterborough in 1989,

Judith Finlayson (1981 - 1984), who was appointed as a Senior Biochemist in the Glasgow Western Infirmary in 1984 and took up an appointment with Wellcome ca. 1988,

Robert Ford, who left in 1989 to work for the new Shield Diagnostics company in the Dundee Technology Park. (ref 170)

John A Fyffe, who was appointed to Edinburgh Western General in 1974, the Department of Medicine, Glasgow in the late 1970s, the Glasgow Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1981, Welwyn Garden City (in 1982) where he later was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist and the Glasgow Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 2003,

Ruth Gallacher, who was appointed to a post in Blackpool, then Birmingham Queen Elizabeth and moved to Birmingham Heartlands in 2002,

Liz Gowan (later Chesters), who was appointed as a Basic Grade in 1983 and as Senior Biochemist in Telford in 1990,

Ian Gunn, who was appointed as Senior Registrar in Leeds in 1984 and as Consultant in Law Hospital, Lanarkshire in 1987,

Jacqueline EA Howey, who was appointed to a post in Northampton in 1990,

Brian T Martin, who was appointed as Senior Biochemist ca, 1974 and who was appointed a Principal Biochemist (and later as Top Grade Biochemist) in Exeter in 1982. Brian retired in 2003,

Jack P Moody transferred from the Department of Psychiatry in 1979. He had been appointed as a Principal Biochemist in 1996. He provided a serum lithium service assayed by flame photometry (EEL). To compensate for interference by sodium and potassium, he would measure these cations first and make blank solutions to match each patient serum. He retired in 2001,

Lesley M Nelson, who had been a Basic Grade (1974-80) and Senior Grade (1980-83) Biochemist in the Gastroenterology Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and who was appointed as Senior Biochemist in 1983 (retiring on health grounds in 1995),

Dave Walsh, who was appointed as Consultant in 1973. Walsh had trained in The London Hospital (1966-67), Llandough Hospital, Penarth (1967-68) and Manchester (1968-73). He took study leave to be the Assistant Professor (Medical Laboratory Sciences) at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from 1977-78. From 1985 and 1990, he was the Royal College of Pathologist's Regional Adviser for the East of Scotland. He retired in the 1995 and took up posts with the University of Dundee and the Perth and Kinross Healthcare NHS Trust.

Professor PD Griffiths was appointed Vice-Principal of the University from 1979 until 1985 when he was appointed Dean of Medicine and Dentistry. Brian Burchell, Wellcome Trust Senior Lecturer in the University Department of Biochemistry, was appointed to the Chair of Medical Biochemistry in October 1988 and took the Headship of the University Department of Biochemical Medicine. Griffiths continued as Head of the NHS Department until his retiral in 1989 and his work was recognised by the award of a CBE in the 1990 New Year's Honours List. He was awarded the ACB Kone Award in 1985.

PEG Mitchell was appointed as Head of Department in 1989 until his retiral in 1992. He died in 2010.

Mike Ryan, from Birmingham, was appointed as Consultant in 1992. He returned to Northern Ireland in 1995.

Ellie Dow, from St Mary's Hospital, London, was appointed Consultant in 1995.

Among the staff appointed in the 1990s were:-

Judith Strachan was appointed as basic Grade Biochemist in 1990, Senior Biochemist in 1993, Principal Biochemist in 2000 and Top Grade in 2005.

Aubrey Blumsohn, from Sheffield (Registrar in Chemical Pathology, 1989-90 and MRC Research Fellow in Human Metabolism & Clinical Biochemistry, 1991-96), who was appointed as Senior Registrar in 1996. His interests included mathematical biology and metabolic bone disease. He returned to Sheffield in 2000. (ref: 155)

Patrick Deegan, (Registrar in General Medicine in Dublin, 1991-94) who was appointed as Registrar in 1995. (ref: 155)

Scott Ross, who was appointed as a Grade A Trainee in 1994. and who died in a tragic accident in February 1998.

Ian Hanning, who had been a Basic Grade Biochemist (1980 to 86) in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, Senior Biochemist (1986 to 89) in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (UK NEQAS) prior to working with Serono Diagnostics in Woking (1989 to 91), was appointed as Principal Biochemist responsible for the endocrine service in 1991. He was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist in Aberystwyth in 1998 and as Top Grade in Hull Royal Infirmary in 2001. He retired in 2018. (ref: 155)

Heather P Stevenson, who was a Senior Biochemist in Belfast, was appointed as Principal Biochemist in 1997 and retired in 2005.

Kim P Tebbutt, a Grade A trainee from Manchester Royal Infirmary, was appointed as Senior biochemist in 1995 and as Principal Biochemist at Arrowpark and Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral, in 1999. She was appointed as Principal Biochemist at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2001. (ref: 155)

Ian Godber was appointed as a Grade A Trainee in 1997, as Senior Biochemist at Nottingham City Hospital in 2000, as Principal Biochemist at Wishaw General, Lanarkshire, in 2002 and Top Grade at Monklands Hospital, Lanarkshire, in 2008.

Joy Johnstone, Grade A Trainee at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, was appointed Senior Biochemist in 1999.

Rebecca Pattenden from Selly Oak, Birmingham, was appointed as Senior biochemist in 2001. She was appointed as Principal Biochemist in Kircaldy in 2006 and as Consultant Biochemist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in 2013.

Sharon Jenner was appointed as a Grade A Trainee in 2001.

William (Bill) A Bartlett, who had been a Senior Biochemist in the department from 1984 to 1991, was appointed as Top Grade Biochemist in 2006. Bartlett trained in Northwick Park, Harrow (1976 - 1984), Dundee (1984 to 1991), East Birmingham (1991 to 1997/8) and had been Top Grade Biochemist in Birmingham Heartlands from 1997/8. He became an Honorary Member of the ACB in 2019, following his retirement.

Heidi Mendoza won the John King award for a paper on the development of the LC-MS assay for drugs of abuse in oral fluid, she presented at the Autumn meeting in Edinburgh of the Scottish Region of the ACB in 2011.

Harriet Hale, took part in the Scientist Training Programme under the supervision of Bill Bartlett from 2014 to 2017. She was appointed as a Senior Clinical Scientist at Edinburgh Western General in 2017. She was the East of Scotland trainee representative for the ACB from 2016 and became the Meetings Secretary for the Scottish Region of the ACB in 2018.

Stracathro Hospital

Bridge of Earn Hospital & Perth Infirmary

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(Last up-dated November 2019)