Te Aroha doctor honoured with Community Service Medal from Royal NZ College of GPs

Dr Brendon Eade received the Community Service Medal from the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners after serving his Te Aroha community for 20 years. Photo / Tom Eley

Despite earning national acclaim as a champion bagpiper, Te Aroha GP Dr Brendon Eade has devoted the past two decades to the quieter craft of rural medicine.

That dedication has now been recognised with a national award: the Community Service Medal from the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP).

The medal was presented to community medicine specialist GPs who had insight into the challenges and healthcare trends affecting their communities, RNZCGP president Dr Luke Bradford said.

Born and bred in the Waikato, Eade provides a full range of services including cover for the local hospital, rest homes, school clinics, skin clinics and after-hours care as well as being available for palliative care patients.

He has also been a teacher of fourth- and sixth-year medical students, a teacher of GP registrars and was a College Medical Educator for many years.

The RNZCGP said Eade received the medal because he often went above and beyond, but Eade said that was the duty of all GPs when dealing with their patients.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m doing anything more special than any of my other GP colleagues. I think we all grow and develop relationships.”

A natural curiosity for science and people led him to become a doctor, but “piping” came first, as music runs strong in Eade’s family: sister Kristin is an artist teacher of flute at the New Zealand School of Music.

Eade said he was not a perfect student at school, and it was only in seventh form that he found his passion for science.

During his stint at medical school, he left his bagpipes behind and focused on becoming a doctor.

Initially, he planned to pursue the general surgical route, as he had limited exposure to GP work while at the University of Auckland.

However, “serendipity” would change his life.

Dr Eade has been at the Health Te Aroha fulltime since 2005. Photo / Tom Eley

In his final year of medical school, he chose to undertake a medical elective overseas and started playing bagpipes again.

It was a toss-up between the Cook Islands and Scotland.

He ended up choosing Scotland, working in clinics based in Edinburgh and on the Isle of Skye, working with Dr Angus MacDonald.

That experience was an eye-opener, Eade said, and he knew he would be back in Scotland once he completed his New Zealand training.

No sooner said than done: he and wife Meleana returned to do the classic Kiwi OE.

“We went for a holiday in 1998 and then went back in 1999.”

That was when serendipity struck. He was at the Scottish Highland Games in 1999 when he was offered a GP trainee role in Inverness.

“I never looked back.”

Brendon Eade performs on a vintage bagpipe set from the 1930s. Photo / Tom Eley

He returned to New Zealand in 2004, was sent to Te Aroha and “stuck at” Health Te Aroha in 2005.

“Came to work here, and enjoyed the practice and the people.”

In 2006, the practice began taking fourth-year and sixth-year medical students and started training GP registrars in 2010.

According to Eade, students benefit by enjoying a variety of patients and different clinical presentations.

There was a mutual benefit as the practice kept up to date with all the relevant medical information, and the rural community tended to embrace the students, he said.

“I think that’s a really cool thing.”

Dr Brendon Eade in 2018. Photo / Pinnacle

He still gets the bagpipes out regularly for town events and fundraisers.

He plays a vintage set made of African blackwood, dating back to 1930.

“I have been playing them since about 2009. Before that, I had another vintage set, though they were a full silver set of Henderson bagpipes from 1914.”

He performed with his sister alongside the NZSO during the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour.

The bagpiping world gives him a much-needed break, with Eade, his wife, his sister and her husband forming a traditional folk music band.

“It was mostly just sort of jam sessions together. But that developed into us ending up doing some performances.

“It was a fun time.”

Health Te Aroha serves about 6000 patients, covering Te Aroha and surrounding villages, including Waitoa and Waihou.

Over a 20-year career, he hopes to have educated patients as much as they have enlightened him.

“Learning from the complaints as well as the positives is super important.”

Practising medicine in a rural setting comes with ebbs and flows, where big employers leave, sometimes leaving townsfolk unemployed in the process.

“I can remember when Silver Fern Farms had their fire, and the workers were not [able to work] at some of the farms as they were being rebuilt.

“Which had a knock-on effect on the town.”

Despite these hurdles, there is nowhere Eade would rather be.

“I fell in love with Te Aroha as soon as I got here.”

Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. He previously worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive.