| Richard Hillier |
 Richard was born in Devon in 1940, and sent to board at a young age at Christ's Hospital School. He had always wanted to study
medicine and went to St Bartholomew's Hospital, London for his training from 1958-64. It was during his first surgical house
job that Richard Hillier describes himself as having 'switched off' to ideas of death and dying, having been unable to assimilate
the somewhat heavy handed approach by his surgical consultant towards a dying girl. The next phase of Richard Hillier's career
took him to the Antarctica, where he undertook his MD as part of the British Antarctic Survey with the Medical Research Council
in 1966-67. It was during this spell at the Medical Research Council that he read an article by Cicely Saunders in the Journal
of Hospital Medicine, which helped him to overcome his earlier negative experiences. However, deciding that research was not
his forte, Richard Hillier then moved into general practice. This gave him the chance to try out Cicely Saunders' methods
on a dying patient, Mr French, and he was delighted with the results. Now working at a practice in Portsmouth, Richard Hillier
found he could not manage all his dying patients as well as Mr French, and sought further training at St Christopher's in
1972-73, as well as visiting a number of other hospices. Richard Hillier was uneasy at some of the more evangelical attitudes
of some staff at independent hospices, but when he was invited to apply for the Medical Directorship of the NHS unit in Southampton,
Countess Mountbatten House, he decided to apply, and was appointed in 1977. The interview describes the development of Countess
Mountbatten House, covering such topics as: the contribution of Andrew Hayes [ph], the Regional Oncology Administrator for
the Regional Health Authority; drugs (Brompton Cocktail/morphine/ diamorphine); pioneering roles and the arrival of Graham
Thorpe; education; day care; home care; early research with Barry Lunt; and the story of Macmillan's involvement with the
unit. On the national scene references are made to the Wilkes' Report (1980); the National Council for Hospice and Specialist
Palliative Care Services; Help the Hospices; and the development of the specialty (1987).
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| Interview conducted by David Clark, 18 December 1996 |
| Interview Duration: 1 hour, 46 minutes |
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