04 NOVEMBER 2009 ISSUE
Managers urged to climb to new heights
Barbara Fountain
editor@nzdoctor.co.nz
“Up where we belong” was the theme for this year’s Practice Managers and Administrators Association (PMAANZ) conference in Christchurch. Editor Barbara Fountain caught up with delegates on the first morning of the conference Office-bound practice man-agers might have been surprised to learn their work had parallels in mountaineering but climber Mark Inglis puts up a convincing argument.
Speaking to delegates at the recent PMAANZ conference, Mr Inglis put a personal twist on the conference theme in a presentation entitled “Up where I belong”, explaining how climbing has taught him how to handle change.
“The concepts of change are no different to those you use in your business and when I climb mountains.”
And, while mountaineering is sometimes painted as a solitary activity, Mr Inglis says it is the ultimate team sport with the ultimate responsibility – “you are tied to each other”.
Mr Inglis lost his legs to frostbite back in 1982 when he and climbing partner Philip Doole spent 13 and a half days trapped by extreme bad weather in an ice cave on the upper slopes of Aoraki Mt Cook.
“We thought we would lose a few toes and be back climbing by Christmas. As it was we were up for a bit of change.”
And, though change can be frightening, he told practice managers – themselves facing changes within the primary care sector – it leads to innovation and different thinking.
Following his double amputation, Mr Inglis studied biochemistry and worked in medical research before becoming a winemaker.
“After something like that there is one thing you need to learn – and it is not how to ski or climb again – it was about how to think again.”
And some of the thinking went into building new legs.
In New Zealand amputees are entitled to only one set of funded limbs at a time, Mr Inglis says. And, it took 15 years before he received his current “gold standard” pair. In the meantime, he worked to build for himself a range of limbs for, among other things, climbing, skiing and cycling.
“If I stayed with the thinking of our prosthetics industry I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.”
Mr Inglis says it is important to be able to see yourself as others do because, if you can’t do that, you can’t understand compliments and criticisms.
He says it took him 10 years to appreciate this, to realise when people were complimenting him they were talking to a double amputee, not to him. “I took my foot off the pedal.”
But no longer. Mr Inglis is a man with a mission, or make that several. Included in his recent achievements is becoming the first man without legs to summit Mt Everest.
Comparing his achievement with that of Sir Ed Hillary he says the major difference – besides a few gear issues (Sir Ed’s oxygen bottle weighed 18kg and Mr Inglis’ was 8kg) – was that Sir Ed went where no one had gone before and so made it possible for others to follow in his footsteps.
Mr Inglis is also involved in a number of projects helping disabled people in Nepal and has started a charity, Limbs 4 Life. He wants to pool the knowledge gained making his own limbs to create the best prosthetics possible – and sell them for $50.
Ultimately, he says, be optimistic. “Look at me. This is not a double amputee. It’s a guy that has frostbite sussed. He’s not going to let that happen again.”
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