Dr David Sutherland

Please note: this bio is a first draft. It will be updated and built on with contributions from people who knew David.

Dr David Sutherland moved to Newcastle in 1984 and was the senior staff specialist and clinical director the Hunter Immunology Unit at Royal Newcastle Hospital when the first local case of AIDS was treated in Newcastle. He had been trained in Auckland, Boston and London. 

For the first few years he and Sandra Berrenger teamed up to deliver AIDS education in the Hunter collaborating with state and federal initiatives to combat community hysteria and to prevent the spread of the virus.

Examples of AIDS education videos

https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/59914

https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/59923

His democratic management style was in tune to the urgency of the time to address the treatment and care of AIDS patients. These are nurse Pauline Dobson's memories  https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/81151

In 1988 a local branch of the AIDS Council of NSW was established which took up much of the education job and antibody testing that Sandra and David had started. 

The Community Carers Network, which had began in Sydney to provide support care and day to day assistance for people with AIDS, established Community Carers Network Hunter in 1989.  

Wez Saunders was there from the start. 

https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/86619 .

Around the same time in 1989, the Sisters of St Joseph Lochinvar, shocked by cases of AIDS hysteria established MacKillop House in Carrington as a supportive environment for people with AIDS. Sister Annie Laurie was the main player in convincing David that the Sisters could deliver this important adjunct to the work of the Royal Newcastle Hospital.

Sister Annie speaks about her meeting with David in this interview.

 https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/93556 

Karumah, a local organisation of people living with HIV and AIDS, was also established in 1989. It provided social support and weekly meals for members.

David and Sandy continued their training and education programme, supporting these community based organisations. 

In the years after the 1989 earthquake, when most functions of the Royal Newcastle Hospital were transfered to the new John Hunter Hospital, the AIDS ward was not. This had serious implications for the care of his patients and David Sutherland began an energetic lobbying campaign putting his career on the line many times for his patients. An AIDS ward was established at John Hunter Hospital in 1991. 

David was appointed as a consultant to the World Health Organisation's Global Programme on AIDS and served as an associate professor at the University of Newcastle and director of the Clinical Immunology Unit at John Hunter Hospital until he opened his own rooms in Broadmeadow in 1993.