Spot Turnbull image from SMH tribute, here
REGINALD (Spot) Turnbull achieved great things as Tasmania’s second state health minister.
After he succeeded Dr J. F. Gaha as health minister in 1948, he established the first proper training for Tasmanian ambulance officers and set up the state’s own Royal Flying Doctor Service.
He set up training and appointed our first marriage celebrants.
He had fluoride introduced into the state’s town water to help combat Tasmanians’ shocking tooth decay and established the first state dental health services in the late 1950s.
He campaigned for compulsory tuberculosis screening at a time when Australia had a frighteningly high incidence of the disease
He also pushed for the development of Launceston’s Cosgrove Park, the first government-supported home for the aged in the North.
What made Dr Turnbull’s achievements the more remarkable in his 11 years as health minister was that he achieved it all with a staff of three.
His entire department consisted of a driver, a minutes secretary and public servant extraordinaire Laurie Shea, who did everything from typing his letters to serving as inaugural secretary on many of the new, health-oriented community groups he set up.
My mind wandered often to the inimitable Dr Turnbull and Mr Shea, his hard-working minder – today’s equivalent of his chief of staff – as I sat listening to the gaggle of last week’s state budget estimates hearings at Parliament House.
Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne had 30 senior public servants with her during the two, long days of health budget estimates hearings.
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Ms O’Byrne’s entourage included four senior advisers as well as her new head of office Bernadette Jago.
Senior health administrators like Northern Area Health Service chief executive John Kirwan, North-West Area Health Service chief executive Gavin Austin and their Southern Area Health Service equivalent Jane Holden sat through the entire two days of hearings waiting for someone to ask a question that required them to answer on minister Michelle O’Byrne’s behalf.
