"We had the best of First World medicine but sadly the Third World diseases. And there was a lot of violence. We were dealing with people with stab wounds, and were doing a lot of open-heart surgery," he said.
But seeing an advertisement in a medical journal changed all that.
"There was a Kiwi anaesthetist who wanted to do a swap for a like position in South Africa and he was from Whanganui. Our bosses agreed. We swapped literally everything - houses, cars, even pets and children's school uniforms for three months here.
"We just loved that but had no thoughts of coming back because it was so hard to get a job here," he said.
The Millers returned to Soweto to find violence had escalated. It was a time before Nelson Mandela was released and people were turning up at hospital with wounds inflicted by police and gangs.
"Then one morning I got a phone call from Whanganui saying they had a position. It was big decision to make but we haven't looked back for one moment."
In the past 30 years he received plenty of job offers but he had a secure position and his wife had a teaching job at St Georges School.
"We just loved the lifestyle. Whanganui is simply the most underrated place. I'm sure more would come here if they had job opportunities."
