The battle to get better resources for the department had been the biggest challenge for the 67-year-old, who is set to retire next month.
There had been highlights, too — new facilities had opened, and bounds in medical care mean people were pulling through in cases that would once have been fatal.
Dr Chambers trained in Scotland — the first of his family to go into medicine — worked in England and was in Adelaide when he saw the senior ED doctor’s job advertised at Dunedin Hospital.
During 30 years on the job, he spent time as department clinical leader and served twice as a Southern District Health Board member.
His arrival at the hospital soon ushered in a change for the ED.
In 1996, he passed the difficult exams that allowed him to take on trainees.
"It was quite a milestone, and that allowed the department to be qualified for training.
"Because the specialty was very new, there was nobody local to take on the training."
Training graduates to become specialists and seeing them progress was "very satisfying", he said.
There were now many people working all over New Zealand and Australia who had trained at the hospital.
The opening of a new and improved department in 1998 was a stand-out moment, and the opening of the observation ward in 2011 was another big step.
The next positive change would be the eventual opening of the new Dunedin hospital, in which the size of the ED would be doubled, he said.
"That’s going to be a major milestone."
However, positives and negatives were closely interwoven, he said.
Development was good but came about because of a dire need.
The hospital was struggling to cope now, and he was sad the situation was not better as he prepared to leave.
EDs were not being given enough government resources and he and his colleagues had to "fight for every lightbulb", he said.
"It’s been a constant battle to get recognition that the EDs are an important place that deserve investment and expansion."
Removal of the DHBs had meant removal of local governance, which had taken away accountability.
People needed a local voice, and did not find much meaning in getting an apology from "a nameless bureaucrat in Wellington", he said.
It was a situation he did not believe could last, predicting they would be reinstated in the future.
A day on the job in ED was quite different from how it had been 30 years ago.
"When I started emergency medicine in 1985, lots of people died of heart attacks, strokes, cancer — there weren’t the treatments that there are today."
Car crashes and industrial accidents also caused a lot of damage, whereas now workplaces had more regulations and cars were safer.
"Motor-vehicle accidents often used to be fatal.
"Now people survive, and are often not that badly injured."
Patients now tended to be older people with chronic conditions, who would still live another 10 years.
Lots of time was spent treating complications of cancer patients who would "never have survived 30 years ago."
The types of accidents had also changed unbelievably.
Injuries were more likely to be incurred in leisure pursuits — for example, a go-getting retiree falling off a quad bike or a mountain bike.
Geriatrics care was set to be a big issue of the future.
Dr Chambers’ own retirement was set to be filled by more relaxing activities.
Golf, gardening and grandchildren would fill the days.
Looking back at the career he had settled on decades ago, partly due to a liking for the TV show M*A*S*H, he said he was "very happy" despite the challenges. However, the time was right to "let the younger ones take over".
