He was a professor of surgery at Monash University and served as president of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and chairman of the Menzies Foundation.
He played a significant role in influencing the Victorian Government to become the first jurisdiction in the world to introduce legislation for the compulsory use of seat belts in motor vehicles.
In the course of his undergraduate studies, he was awarded the Dwight's Prize in Anatomy and Physiology (1940), the Walter and Eliza Hall Exhibition in Pathology (1941), the Keith Levi Memorial Scholarship for Medicine (1943) and was placed first in his final year class list in obstetrics and gynaecology (1943).
Between 1977 and 1979, he was also Associate Dean of the Monash University Faculty of Medicine and, throughout this period, he was a consultant surgeon and a member of the Board of Management at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.
The advocacy of the Committee is widely acknowledged as directly resulting in the introduction by the Victorian Government of the world's first compulsory seat belt legislation in 1970.
As chairman of the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Vietnam Committee, he travelled extensively through South East Asia demonstrating operating techniques with "energetic enthusiasm" .
Between 1964 and 1965, Hughes was the recipient of the Sir Arthur Sims Commonwealth Travelling Scholarship, resulting in an extended lecturing commitment in Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and South Africa.
Between 1950 and 1951, he served as a lieutenant-colonel and senior surgeon at Kure Hospital, Japan, as a member of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in the course of the Korean War.