Dr "Bobby" Irvine - BGS President 1981 - 1984 - (Article 4)

From The Times newspaper

Tuesday March 25, 2003

Lives in Brief

Bobby Irvine, CBE, specialist in geriatric orthopaedics, was born on September 27, 1920.  He died in St Peter Port, Guernsey, on December 25, 2002, aged 82.

Bobby Irvine was President of the British Geriatrics Society from 1981 – 1984. The development of geriatric orthopaedics – the system of interdisciplinary care of older people with hip fractures, which he pioneered with the orthopaedic surgeon M.B. Devas – became the benchmark for the care of such patients. His contribution was recognised when he was appointed CBE in 1983.

The late 1940s saw the establishment of geriatrics as a speciality in the British health service, and it was realised that previously bedfast “chronic sick” patients could be rehabilitated, and that the way to prevent the slide of dependency was to ensure that older people had proper access to specialist investigations in district hospitals.

In 1958 Irvine was appointed consultant physician in geriatric medicine to the Hastings Health Authority, and he remained there for the rest of his career. At a time when nursing and medical hierarchies tended to be very separate, he championed interdisciplinary care. Nurses of all grades were encouraged and enabled to contribute to the assessments of his patients.

He was the co-author of The Older Patient, a standard text for some 25 years, and singled out the importance of removing restrictions on visiting times on elderly care wards.