Editing Earle Page (section)

==Medical career==
Page's first professional posting came before he had even been registered as a medical practitioner. Due to a shortage of doctors, he was acting superintendent of the [[Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children]] for one month.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), pp. 39–40.</ref> In 1902, he took up a position as a [[Residency (medicine)|resident]] at the [[Royal Prince Alfred Hospital]], serving in a variety of roles including as house surgeon under [[Robert Scot Skirving]]. During that time he contracted a near-fatal infection from a postmortem examination.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), pp. 42–43.</ref> He also met his future wife, nurse [[Ethel Page|Ethel Blunt]].<ref name="ethel [http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/spouse.aspx">Earle Page > Ethel Page] {{Cite web |url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/spouse.aspx |title=Ethel Page - Earle Page - Australia's PMS - Australia's Prime Ministers |access-date=29 January 2018 |archive-date=13 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313153029/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/spouse.aspx |url-status=bot: unknown }}, National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 29 January 2017.</ref> Page returned to his home town in 1903, taking over a practice in [[South Grafton, New South Wales|South Grafton]]. He and two partners subsequently established a new private hospital, Clarence House Hospital, which opened in 1904 and served both Grafton and the surrounding region.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 43.</ref>

Page was a keen adopter of new technologies. In 1904, he bought what he claimed was "the first [[Rover Company|Rover]] car in Australia", which was powered by kerosene.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 51.</ref> He upgraded to an [[Itala (company)|Itala]] in 1908, and had the chassis enlarged so it could be used as an ambulance. He also had an x-ray machine installed in his hospital, one of the first in Australia outside a major city.<ref>Moorhouse (2001), p. 53.</ref> Page developed a reputation for surgical innovation, taking a number of patients from Sydney and even some from interstate. One operation that brought him particular fame was [[Pneumonectomy|the removal]] of a patient's diseased lung, a procedure that had only been invented a few years previously.<ref>{{cite conference|first=Carl|last=Bridge|author-link=Carl Bridge|year=1993|url=https://www.page.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/EARLE-PAGE-LECTURE.pdf|title=Earle Page: the politician and the man|conference=Earle Page College Thirtieth Anniversary Series|page=3|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129195700/https://www.page.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/EARLE-PAGE-LECTURE.pdf|archive-date=29 January 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Page became an inaugural [[Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons]] (FRACS) in 1927, and in 1942 was made an honorary [[Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons|Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England]] (FRCS).<ref name=obit>{{cite journal|title=Obituary: Sir EARLE PAGE, P.C., G.C.M.G., C.H., Hon.D.Sc. M.B., Ch.M., Hon.F.R.C.S., F.R.A.C.S|journal=[[British Medical Journal]]|page=1787|year=1961|volume=2|issue=5269|pmc=1970945|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.5269.1787}}</ref>

In February 1916, Page enlisted in the [[Australian Army Medical Corps]]. He was chief medical officer aboard the troopship {{Abbr|HMAT|His Majesty's Australian Transport}} ''Ballarat'', and was then stationed at an army hospital in [[Cairo]] for several months. He was transferred to a hospital in England in July 1916, and concluded his service as a surgical specialist at a [[casualty clearing station]] in France. Page returned to Australia in March 1917 and was discharged from the military in July 1917.<ref name=obit/> Although his active involvement in medicine declined as his political career progressed, he was frequently called upon to treat his fellow MPs or parliamentary staff. This was particularly true after the federal government moved to Canberra, as the new capital had only a handful of qualified surgeons. In 1928, for instance, he performed an emergency appendectomy on [[Parker Moloney]].<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237788309 "EARLE PAGE SAVES LIFE OF LABOR MEMBER"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180129195518/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237788309 |date=29 January 2018 }}, ''[[Labor Daily]]'', 18 September 1928.</ref>