Dr Brian O’Connell is a dual-trained specialist who previously worked in General Practice in the west of Ireland, and now practises Emergency Medicine on the east coast of Australia.

 

Brian pivoted towards sustainable healthcare and mitigation of climate related health risks after being asked to prepare to evacuate Macksville Hospital from the 2019 bushfires. He has also treated some of the 45,000 homeless patients from the nearby Lismore floods in 2022 and has witnessed a devastating one hundred million dollar supercell storm in the village where he lives in 2021.

 

Brian is the Sustainable Healthcare Lead for the Mid North Coast Local Health District (MNCLHD) and the joint lead author of the MNCLHD Sustainable Healthcare Implementation Plan with 116 Champions joining in the last six months and multiple implementation programs in action. He was the first Net Zero / Climate Risk Lead for NSW Emergency Departments, with the Ministry of Health and is the research and implementation lead for the Rational Investigations Program (RiP) which has demonstrated over $500,000 cost reductions in one ED in one year with nil adverse events identified. He is a member of the NSW Sustainable Pathology Taskforce and has a vision to scale a similar program to all emergency departments and hospitals in NSW. Brian is a co-founder of the the SustainAble ED Program, the Rational Cannulation Program, and deputy chair of ACEMs Sustainable Emergency Medicine and Climate Advocacy Network with nearly one hundred emergency doctors across Australia and New Zealand.

 

He is a board director with Climate and Health Alliance and founder of sustainable community organisation Sawtell 2030 . Brian previously directed emergency ultrasound programs and co-founded and led the Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Groups from 2015-2018. Brian is privileged to be a conjoint lecturer with the UNSW Rural Clinical School in Coffs Harbour.