Susie O'Reilly graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science in 1903 and followed up with a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery in 1905. Her application for a residential post at Sydney Hospital, made in January of that year, was rejected on the basis that there was no suitable accommodation for a female resident medical officer, a decision that caused much controversy in the local press.

Between 1905-07 she worked as the resident medical officer at Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne and the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, Sydney. She joined her father's medical practice in Pymble, Sydney in 1908.

Events

1921

Co-founder of the New South Wales Association of Registered Medical Women.

1926 - 1948

Consulting physician, Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children

1948

Retired.

1959

Appointed life governor of the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children.

Sources used to compile this entry: Grose, Kelvin, 'Breaching the bastions. Susannah O'Reilly - pioneer Australian female doctor', Medical Journal of Australia, no. 169, 1998, pp. 648-650.