Background
Dent was born in Warragul Victoria, and educated at Warragul High School and Wesley College, Melbourne before being admitted to study Medicine at Melbourne University, initially at Queen"s College.
Dent was born in Warragul Victoria, and educated at Warragul High School and Wesley College, Melbourne before being admitted to study Medicine at Melbourne University, initially at Queen"s College.
Dent completed his surgical training in the United Kingdom, being admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985.
Medical & Humanitarian Following this he spent many years at a mission hospital at Shishong in Cameroon, where he was the only qualified surgeon in a small team of doctors. He helped bring modern medical and surgical methods to a chronically under-resourced hospital, and his surgical training was invaluable in helping people in hundreds of local villages. His fundraising efforts help upgrade the very basic equipment, and he was the first doctor on-scene with medical aid at the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster: the eruption of a cloud of volcanic gases which killed almost 2000 people and sparked a major international aid effort.
His work on tropical medicine in New Guinea was cut short by the 1994 double volcanic eruption which almost completely destroyed the city.
At Street Vincent’s, he instituted wide-ranging changes, increasing the number of patients seen each year from 24,000 to over 40,000, ensuring a very low rate of ambulance by-pass, advocating for a specialist mental health emergency centre, establishing the Emergency Practice Innovation Centre, and helping ensure that emergency medical services were provided with “compassion, justice, and a respect for human dignity”. He had a particular focus on ensuring that homeless people received good medical care.
Earning a master"s degree in Public Health and appointed as an associate professor at Melbourne University, he published many dozens of research papers and developed practice manuals used globally. He was active in the development and education of young doctors in Australia and internationally.
Dent continued visiting New Guinea frequently, working for improved public health, particularly in the Southern Highlands and Gulf provinces.
In order to ensure that this important public health work continued he helped establish the Pacific Health Foundation. In 2008 Dent was admitted to the Order of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. Dent was diagnosed with cancer in June 2007.
Returning to Australia in 1995, he became a member of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine, was admitted as a fellow of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine and became Director of Emergency at Street Vincent"s Hospital, Melbourne.