Bradley Engelmann died at home on 23 October 1996. A brilliant career was cut short when he retired in 1993 because of his progression to AIDS, having been diagnosed with HIV in 1984, at the age of 21. At Prince Henry’s, he had been the youngest Food Services Manager of any metropolitan Hospital, achieving this position at the age of 25 . However, Bradley is more likely to be remembered for his long term activism for the rights of positive people.

He became a volunteer within People Living with HIV/AIDS (Victoria) and was an influential and articulate force within that movement for about six years. He served as Convenor of the Positive Living Centre, a community centre for men and women with HIV/AIDS, and during his term services were greatly expanded. In 1993 he was elected by his peers to the Board of the Victorian AIDS Council as the Openly HIV+ Representative. In this position, positive people always knew they had a staunch ally and advocate. In 1994, Bradley won the Presidency of the organisation, leading a team determined to ensure that the voice of positive people was heard in the organisation which they felt had yet to welcome them as equal participants with a right to participate and contribute, rather than see them as passive victims who should be grateful recipients of services.

The future of Fairfield Hospital rapidly became an important issue for the entire Victorian community. Bradley realised sooner than most that, on this occasion, the Hospital could not be saved on its current site. Senior medical staff advocated for Fairfield to be linked more strongly with the facilities of a major teaching hospital, so that a fuller range of services could be maintained. Bradley led the organisation’s response to the Metropolitan Hospitals Planning Board and was taken very seriously. He was a driving force behind "The Ideal Hospital" document which outlined the minimum standards of in- and outpatient care required by positive men and women. This document was subsequently included by then Health Minister, Marie Tehan, in the tender documents and in the documentation for the Expert Evaluation Panel, charged with determining the future of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases services following the closure of Fairfield.

Bradley felt extreme personal distress that, as a result of the tendering process determined by the Minister, HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases were split up and a world renowned Centre of Excellence at Fairfield was dismantled. With his encouragement, People Living with HIV/AIDS (Victoria) issued a public statement on the hospital issue which was misrepresented as favouring St Vincent’s bid over the Alfred. The position, subsequently endorsed by the AIDS Council, was however concerned to maintain HIV/AIDS services both north and south of the river, through the provision of a cross hospital network and state-wide service, as originally envisaged by the Planning Board.

His Presidency was certainly controversial: he insisted on open and transparent processes and pushed for the introduction of staff performance appraisal and greater accountability. Achievements were a greater organisational involvement in World AIDS Day, and placing women’s issues and euthanasia high on the Council’s agenda. After narrowly loosing the Presidency in 1995, Bradley went on to serve on the Executive of the National Association of People Living with AIDS, as spokesperson on Community Services. He appeared frequently in the mainstream press and electronic media on the Fairfield issue and in the euthanasia debate.

He inspired great love and loyalty from his peers, but was also demonised by his political opponents, often being blamed for the actions of others. His reform agenda, endorsed by a large majority at the 1994 Annual General Meeting, included a commitment to the introduction staff performance appraisals, standard practice in most organisations. His awareness of and attempts to deal with alleged abuse of the organisation's sales-tax exempt status involving senior figures within the organisation also made him a target. He became the focus of a series of inaccurate and unbalanced articles in Bluestone Media's Melbourne Star Observer.

Bradley's way of dealing with HIV/AIDS in his own life was inspiring. For such a public person, his battle was essentially private. His positive attitude and his courage endeared him greatly to the doctors, nurses and health professionals who were his allies in this fight. He was a supporter of the pioneering work of Fairfield Chief Dietician, Jenny McDonald, who had demonstrated the importance of early intervention with enteral feeding. After undergoing the procedure himself in 1993, he was instrumental in encouraging other positive people to do likewise. He recognised Jenny's work with the President's Award in 1995. When his health began to decline again and he became increasingly debilitated, he never complained and, when he told his friends that he sensed that things were moving, that he did not have much more time, he had to be taken seriously.

Shortly after returning from a holiday in Tuscany and Germany with his partner, his condition deteriorated quite rapidly. As ever, in full control, he determined that he would die at home, stopping all active treatments and the enteral nutrition on which he had depended for close to three years. He died, as he intended, with great dignity, teaching us until the end.

He was 32 years old.

An edited version of this obituary was published in "The Age", 23 December 1996

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