2009 South Australian of the Year
Dr Bill Griggs AM ASM
Dr Bill Griggs graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1981. He joined the consultant staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital and assumed his current position as the Director of Trauma Services in 1995. He has a strong interest in safety and injury prevention and is the founder of the Roads2Survival community road safety program. Within SA Health he is the State Controller (Health and Medical) for disasters.
He is perhaps best known for his work in disasters, having been deployed to manage evacuations and victim care for the Bali bombings, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami and most recently, has headed up the medical team in the Samoan disaster.
In South Australia he has completed many hundreds of aeromedical retrievals and has been instrumental in the establishment of MedSTAR – the State’s new retrieval service – where he is the Director of Retrieval Coordination. He has also worked as Ambulance Service Medical officer for SA Ambulance Service since the early 1990s having previously spent 15 years as a volunteer ambulance officer.
Dr Griggs was recently recognised with an Ambulance Service Medal in the 2009 Queens Birthday honours and was made a Member of the Order of Australia Medal in 2003 for service to medicine, particularly in trauma, emergency and intensive care management and education.
In 1989 Dr Griggs invented a surgical instrument and associated medical procedure known as the “Griggs technique” which is now used worldwide to help thousands of patients each year. He has a strong interest in governance and has just completed an MBA at Adelaide University.
The author of more than 60 publications, he has lectured widely and is an Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide and James Cook University. He is a volunteer Medical Officer with St John Ambulance Australia and a Group Captain with RAAF as well as the current Director of Air Force Health Reserves for South Australia.
