The Spicer of Life

Now 85 years young, Prof. Spicer laid the foundation for The Alfred’s Infectious Diseases Unit in 1975 as the first Physician in Bacteriology in Australia. 

He soon became Director of Microbiology and, by progressively developing a number of services and facilities, was named the inaugural Director of Infectious Diseases when the full unit was created in 1989. Prof. Spicer remained in this position at The Alfred before retiring from full-time work in 2000, but continues to teach every week. 

His passion for these twin disciplines was initiated after a five-year stint in the south Asian country of Bangladesh.

Prof. Spicer moved there in 1966 with his wife and two young daughters, having had six years’ experience mainly at The Alfred after graduating. This included time in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics/gynaecology and psychiatry. 

Supported by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society with the intention of working there for two years, his knowledge and practical experience in infectious diseases was spurred on by the patients he diagnosed and treated, staying on because of the acute medical needs. 

Most of the patients he saw had tropical infections like malaria and dysentery or non-tropical infections like pneumonia, TB or meningitis. He also did all the necessary surgery and obstetrics, as well as finance and administration. 

When Prof. Spicer returned to Australia with his family in 1970, which now also included two sons – for both of whom he was the obstetrician – he weighed only a staggering 44kg due to various tropical conditions. 

After recovering from his ill-health, he approached Glen Buckle, the Director of Bacteriology/Microbiology at The Alfred and asked if “there could be a job for a young physician who’s interested in germs and antibiotics”.  

At that time, while there were some infectious diseases physicians in Australia, such as at Fairfield Hospital, there were none in general hospitals across the country. Mr Buckle and The Alfred created the first. 

Prof. Spicer’s history with The Alfred had started when he was initially lured there in 1956 by a student friend, while the hospital’s old Victorian architecture also chimed a chord with him. 

“The Alfred was really having to make its reputation even though it was nearly as old as the Royal Melbourne,” Prof. Spicer said. “It (The Alfred) was conscious it had to be as good as the Royal Melbourne, or preferably better. Its standard of medicine here in a lot of areas was ahead of its peers, especially in cardiology and cardiac surgery.”

While there are tens of thousands of grateful patients from among his 65-year storied history at The Alfred, Gary McMahon is just one person who is immensely thankful to him. 

“Professor Spicer at The Alfred saved my life,” Mr McMahon said. “I will be forever grateful. 

“I was one of the first people in Australia to have the highly dangerous UK strain of Meningococcal meningitis when there was an outbreak in Melbourne. 

“I was only 23 and was rushed to The Alfred and was treated by Professor Spicer.” 

Prof. Spicer is now one of the oldest active student teachers and Professors, teaching third-year students at The Alfred, Box Hill and Werribee hospitals each week, showing the usefulness of microbiology in diagnosing and treating infectious diseases. He was honoured for 50 years of teaching medical students by Monash University in 2020. 

“I love the opportunity to interact with such motivated, alert students who show they enjoy my tutorials – and even my jokes – and who tell me they learn because I teach by questioning them, making them think and deduce and answer and remember,” he said. 

Prof. Spicer said the highlights were numerous across his career, ranging from making difficult diagnoses, making patients happier and less anxious after he saw them, to becoming the first full-time infectious diseases physician in Australia for a general teaching hospital. 

He was also the senior author for The Australian Antibiotic Guidelines – Australia's largest selling medical textbook, he successfully integrated Fairfield Hospital AIDS patients and staff when it was closed in 1996 into The Alfred and he advised the hospital on attracting the Burnet (Research) Institute to relocate to The Alfred. 

He is pleased to have committed to leaving gifts in his Will to several departments at The Alfred. A grateful patient himself for the past 40 years, it is not just his admiration for and service to The Alfred that has driven his philanthropic intent, for both he and his wife share strong values and contribute regularly to more than 20 organisations for those in need. 

A HISTORY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT THE ALFRED

The origins of the Infectious Diseases Unit was formed in 1975, when Director of Bacteriology Dr Glen Buckle created the position of Physician in Bacteriology for Professor W John Spicer. There was no Infectious Diseases Physician position existing in any general hospital in Australia.  

‘Fever physicians’ had disappeared with the advent of antibiotics. 

With the role rapidly growing, Prof. Spicer was appointed Director of Microbiology at The Alfred in 1979.  

The Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU) was established in 1989. Organised differently from most other units, it provided care for complicated patients, which included the increasing number of those who were HIV-positive. 

After the closure of the Fairfield Hospital in 1996, about 80 staff came to The Alfred.  

The IDU is now a large team which specialises in infectious diseases. Some doctors and nurses are further specialised in specific diseases. It works to prevent and to treat illness, disability and death caused by a wide range of infectious diseases. 

The service includes an inpatient unit dealing with a range of infectious issues that require admission to hospital, a hospital-wide consult service for patients with infective issues who are admitted under other units in the hospital and outpatient clinics, specialising in a variety of health conditions.  

This includes general infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmissible infections, infections in immunosuppressed individuals, orthopaedic and post-surgical infections, respiratory infections and tuberculosis and viral hepatitis. 

A Travel Medicine Clinic for people who are planning to travel and wish to discuss their infectious diseases risks and preventative measures is also in place. 

The Alfred continues to play a leading role in combatting infectious diseases. More recently, this has been shown in the response to COVID-19 through Professor Allen Cheng, the Director of Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology at The Alfred. Prof. Cheng was seconded to the role of Deputy Chief Health Officer for Victoria for 12 months during the pandemic.