|
|
The other life of a (newly retired) rural doctor - Gordon Calnan |
 The paperwork is harder than the consulting. So says Dr Gordon Calnan, who retired on September 4 and has been wading through a mountain of paperwork since. After fifty years in solo practice in Ballina, the 84-year-old GP decided he was finally beginning to feel a bit old.
He hadn’t up until this year. Apart from having to give up surfing at 74 because his joints were starting to stiffen, and wearing a hearing aid, he has always felt, and looked, like a much younger man. Working full-time until the day he retired, he says doctoring didn’t leave much time for many hobbies although he did find the time to surf on summer evenings with one of his two sons, Phil.
He doesn’t miss the practice yet. He says retirement will give him the chance to indulge his love of travel and he and his wife Joan will be in Greece for most of October. Later in the year it will be a few days in the Cook Islands.
For the last 27 years he has satisfied the urge to travel and his VR points requirements by attending annual conferences overseas. Each week-long conference would be followed by a holiday and in this way the Calnans have travelled the world and made many friends along the way. Closer to home, he was also a keen supporter of the division’s CME events and RVCS dinner meetings where he and Mrs Calnan were familiar faces.
A Sydneysider, he always had a desire to get away from the city and when he switched from insurance to medicine at the age of 24, he knew he wanted to end up a country doctor. He graduated with honours from Sydney University and did his residency in Grafton Base and the Mater in Newcastle, where he trained to be a GP surgeon. During his time in Grafton he saw something of the Northern Rivers. His first wife, who predeceased him, had relatives in Alstonville, so the young couple decided to set up a practice there.
In September 1950, after three years in Alstonville, Dr Calnan and his family relocated to Crane Street in Ballina as two thirds of his patients came from the coastal town.
He became the third doctor in Ballina, which had a population of about 2,500 people and five streets running north from the main street. Since then, the district has changed enormously. In those days only the main roads were sealed and the country roads were made of blue metal. Petrol was rationed, cars were scarce and Dr Calnan spent a considerable amount of time doing house calls.
Formerly on the staff of Lismore Base, St Vincent’s and Ballina hospitals as a GP surgeon, Dr Calnan was also an aviation doctor. In a long GP obstetrician career he delivered 2,500 babies and never lost a mother.
The Cherry Street practice is a large one, with a loyal following. Many of Dr Calnan’s patients have been coming to him for 50 years. Currently leased short-term, he says there is an opportunity for a doctor to move into an established practice in central Ballina. For his patients’ sake he says he would like to see someone take it on permanently.
"I have enjoyed it, they are all good people on the coast,” Dr Calnan says. “It has been a pleasure dealing with them and meeting them every day. I have enjoyed good relations with all the doctors and all staff at the hospital. Ballina has been good to me."
A lighthearted domestic dispute erupts when Dr Calnan discusses his on-call work. He wasn’t called out that much he recalls, maybe a few times a year. Not so, interjects Mrs Calnan, remembering the occasions when they were up three or four times a night. She has good reason to remember; she always accompanied him on night calls. She has also been his practice manager for 27 years and is still going down to the surgery to help out the doctor currently leasing the practice.
A hand painted sign reading Dr Calnan’s emergency bell still hangs outside the modest house close to Ballina’s hospital although it has not been operational for the last 10 years. It is instead a testament to his past. Another plaque says Welcome friends and the flower beds are filled with bright, colourful flowers. A child-sized table and two chairs balance the adult table and chairs on the verandah.
The Calnans consider themselves blessed. Not only do they have an extended family of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, but most of them live locally. Even the family on the Gold Coast is only an hour and a half away.
"Gordon says we are the richest people in the world," Joan Calnan confides as she walks me to my car, "not with money, but with family and friends. And we are, we’re blessed."
Katherine Breen Kurucsev is the editor of GPSpeak.
|
|
|
|
