Te Puke GP John Almond hangs up his stethoscope

GP and Te Puke Medical Centre practice partner John Almond is retiring, with Lisa Wain becoming a full-time GP at the practice.

John Almond will see his last patient at Te Puke Medical Centre next week, 40 years after he saw his first.

When he first walked into the practice, then on Jellicoe St, it was as a locum, there for three months.

John will retire on August 26.

''This year is special for me for two milestones,'' he says. ''It's 45 years since I graduated from Otago Medical School and to celebrate we are having a class reunion. The other one is, it's 40 years since I first arrived here with my young family,'' he says.

At the time he and his wife Noelene had one daughter, Nikki. Sara and Matthew were born later.

John says his time in Te Puke has been ''wonderful''.

''I've been very privileged to be part of patients' lives, watch families grow up and watch them face the challenges that life throws up and how they coped with those.''

After graduating, John moved overseas, working in the UK for almost two years then spending a year in Canada.

''When I came back from overseas I had an offer of a place that was very remote, near Wairoa. ''Jobs were a bit hard to come by and I'd pretty much signed on the dotted line and then Roy Harris, who was one of the guys here, knew that I was back and got in contact and said 'give us a hand for three months and we'll see how it goes'.''

At the time the GPs were frequently on call, would deliver babies, make house calls and attend road crashes.

''We had nights on call, weekends on call, and it wasn't just a few hours, it would be at least a 48-hour stretch over a weekend and then you'd be expected to roll up on a Monday as if nothing had happened.

''You would get called up in the middle of the night and in those days we had a maternity annex, so I was going there, delivering babies.

''It was fantastic really. You lived on adrenaline and there was lots happening.''

Practice manager Jan Farquhar says in her early time at the surgery, doctors would suddenly leave to attend a mother in labour.

''Patients would have to wait and then they'd come back and say 'it's a girl' or 'it's a boy' and everyone would cheer.''

''It was the sort of community where everybody knew what was happening and they celebrated,'' says John.

Road accidents, however, were a different matter with some of them ''horrific''.

''In some ways, life is a breeze now because you don't have all that, but in some ways you miss it.''

Home visits were also part of the GP's role and, to rural areas, they could involve a round trip of 50-60km.

''That's certainly changed,'' says John, ''We still do the odd home visit, but now people have better access to transport, so it's not like it was in those days.''

Retiring Te Puke GP John Almond.

Advances in technology and medication have been obvious changes.

''There was no computer in those days and now I have a love-hate relationship with it, but you can't do without them.''

They, and smartphones, provide a means of communication and quick access to information.

''If I wanted to look up something about a condition years ago, I'd have to go to the medical library and hunt through things that were years old to do the research. Now I just need to click my phone on and within seconds I can have the best scientific knowledge available, just in my hand - it's incredible.

''But medication (advances) have been the big thing. There's been huge progress. You look at the state of the art medications that have come in and they really are life-changing.''

He says people with ulcers could spend weeks in hospital and antacids were the only treatment except for the few who had surgery.

''Then this new medication came out and within a year or two it revolutionised things. People no longer had to go into hospital, they could be managed at home and there were things like gastroscopes to look into stomachs. These things we take for granted now.''

John says it would be nice to see some of the drugs that are funded overseas available in New Zealand.

''There are some new diabetic ones that are awesome and have been available overseas for a while. I realise we are a small country and we have to live within budgets, but we're not a third world country either so we should be on a similar level to Australia and the UK and I can't see why we're not.''

John says it was a difficult decision to retire.

''It's a very addictive job and I really do enjoy it, but times moves on and you've got to look at the future.''

''I've got to acknowledge the crew here, the team, they are awesome, really very supportive and very helpful and they really do a great job. There's also a great team of young doctors coming through who bring with them a lot of fresh ideas and innovation and I think that's good, taking the practice into the future.''

Among them is Lisa Wain who has previously been a locum at the practice, who will now work at the practice full-time.

''Lisa's great - she's well known to the patients because she's been covering when any of us have been away and she is experienced, capable, and I've got every confidence in leaving things in her capable hands.''

John and Noelene have already booked one-way tickets to the South Island.

''We are well overdue a holiday so we are going to take some time out, do a bit of skiing, a bit of reading, eating out, biking and just chilling out. I'm going to reflect on where I want to go from here because it's been a big decision, but I think the time's right to explore something outside medicine.''