Page 1285 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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installing lasting contributions to surgical registrars, nurses and many cancer advocacy groups.
During his career at Calvary hospital, he had many impressive highlights and achievements. He was a general surgeon from 1979 until 2011 and, between 1979 and 2001, Dr Buckingham dedicated his work to the public hospital. From 2002 until 2011, Dr Buckingham was a specialist breast cancer surgeon for Calvary Private Hospital.
In 1991, Dr Buckingham was a member of the advisory committee that set up the breast screening program. This achievement has impacted on the lives of many women across the ACT and from surrounding New South Wales. He also established the ACT breast cancer treatment group, with the help of Jenny Brogan. This group was established to look at issues surrounding the management and treatment of breast cancer within the local environment. This initiative aimed to improve breast cancer treatment and thus reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer and to improve the quality of life for those diagnosed with breast cancer.
Dr Buckingham cared for 11,000 patients during his time. He was a respected practitioner who, when you listen to and talk with his patients, went the extra mile to spend time with them and provide them with comprehensive and explanatory care. An example of this is the overwhelming response I have received as health minister, since Dr Buckingham’s unexpected resignation due to ill health just three months ago, from many of his patients. Dr Buckingham’s patients are expressing how much they value his care and how they are all feeling the gap created by his departure.
He was not only respected and recognised for his work with BreastScreen and surgery but he was a well-respected surgeon who dedicated much of his time to teaching students from the ANU Medical School.
He was also a doctor who believed wholeheartedly in treating the whole person and not just the site or specific diagnosis of their illness. And many patients will talk extensively around how interested he was in all aspects of their life when understanding and considering treatment options and the best way to support them and their family through that.
I attended Dr Buckingham’s funeral yesterday at St Christopher’s where he achieved the honour of having standing room only at his funeral. Hundreds of people packed into St Christopher’s to listen to stories from his brother, David Buckingham, who gave a very moving and at times very funny eulogy—a speech really which can only be given by those who knew and loved him deeply.
He spoke of Dr Buckingham’s great loves, his family, and particularly discussed and talked about his partnership with his wife, Sue. He spoke of 38 years of lives truly intertwined, his love of his children, his love of his faith and his love of his work. He spoke of his childhood antics, his passion for medicine and the very early decision he took as a young person to become a doctor. He spoke extensively of his generosity, not just to his patients but this filtered through to his family, and the time he gave to others to listen and to care about them.
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