 Saunders practiced as a specialist in respiratory and sleep medicine at the Royal Newcastle Hospital and then the John Hunter Hospital from 1990 until 1992, where he was also Chair of the Department of Medicine.From Newcastle he went on to become the Head of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Medicine at Flinders University, South Australia between 1993 and 1998.From 1998 to 2003 he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, Victoria.