EDs are the canary in the coal mine, where the coal mine is the whole health system

People In Health Care
Professor Hugh Grantham, Chair of Emergency Medicine Foundation
Filmed Adelaide, South Australia | September 2024

“The problem of blockages shows up in ambulance ramping and long wait times, but this is a complex issue requiring whole-of-health system solutions,” according to Professor Hugh Grantham, Chair of Emergency Medicine Foundation in an interview with Australian Health Journal.

Professor Grantham says, “One of the biggest concerns for emergency medicine is how to enhance patient flow from arrival at an emergency department to treatment, potential admission, and finally discharge from hospital.”

“There are also out-of-hospital factors including access to GPs and the need for more community care of vulnerable patient groups such as aged care and mental health patients.”

Born and educated in England, Professor Hugh Grantham has interests in prehospital and emergency medicine, medical education and clinical governance.

After relocating, Hugh commenced general practice in Mildura and was recruited to lead the Ambulance Service's clinical development in Adelaide. He was Medical Director of the Ambulance Service until 2011, and inaugural professor of paramedics at Flinders University until 2019. Involved in postgraduate medical emergency education since 1990, Hugh developed the paramedic course, and the postgraduate paramedic courses.

He is the senior educator for the National Advanced Life Support program as well as teaching for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the College of Sports Physicians. Hugh holds the humanitarian services medal for leading overseas aid teams in disasters, and the Ambulance Service Medal. He was a member of the EMF Research Evaluation Panel and is a current member of the Research Committee.