Mary Grace Courtenay Puckey

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, (17 February 1898 – 25 March 1990) was an Australian medical doctor and

hospital administrator Health administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management or hospital management is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of public health systems, health care systems, hospitals, and hospital network ...

. As general superintendent of the

Rachel Forster Hospital The Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children opened on 3 January 1922 in Redfern (an inner suburb of Sydney, Australia) as the 'New Hospital'. In 1925 the hospital was renamed after Baroness Rachel Forster, the wife of the then Governor- ...

in Sydney for 22 years, she was the first woman to serve as superintendent of an Australian hospital.

Early life and education

Mary Puckey was born in Wollongong in 1898 to Courtenay Puckey, an English-born pharmacist, and Grace (née Spence). They lived in Fairy Meadow, where Mary attended Wollongong High School. She then enrolled at the University of Sydney, residing in The Women's College. She completed an

MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in 1923 and a Diploma in Public Health in 1925.

Career

In 1925, Puckey moved to South Australia and began working for the state Department of Education as a medical inspector of schools. She remained in that role until 1937, when she was appointed to the Metropolitan Infectious Diseases Hospital in

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as a bacteriologist. She returned to Sydney in 1941 as the general superintendent of the

; this made her the first woman appointed to such a position in an Australian hospital. She held the post until her retirement in 1962. Under her leadership, the hospital had expanded from a 12-bed facility in the

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to a 120-bed hospital in Redfern. She established a library for

medical record The terms medical record, health record and medical chart are used somewhat interchangeably to describe the systematic documentation of a single patient's medical history and care across time within one particular health care provider's jurisdic ...

s at the hospital and co-founded the New South Wales Association of Medical Records Librarians in 1949, serving as its first president. Puckey also served on the council of the Australian Institute of Hospital Administrators and the councils of the New South Wales branches of the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association's headquar ...

and the

Australian Medical Association The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is an Australian public company by guarantee formed as a professional association for Australian doctors and medical students. The association is not run by the Australian Government and does not regul ...

. She was awarded an

in 1963.

Retirement

After retiring in 1962, Puckey moved from Sydney to the Blue Mountains, settling in

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with her sister Selina, who was also a doctor. She died in Wentworth Falls in 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puckey, Mary 1898 births 1990 deaths Australian hospital administrators People from Wollongong Sydney Medical School alumni Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Australian women medical doctors 20th-century Australian medical doctors