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Then and now

The treatments available for patients nowadays is miraculous compared to what I could do when starting out as a GP in 1959.

Having said that, I would say practices have became a bit less personal than they were.

If a doctor was at a practice for a long time then his patients would become more like family.

Younger doctors now complain about a high level of stress and say they are more encumbered by red tape which I can sympathise with.

On the other-hand, we had some big responsibilities which GPs do not have to worry about such as midwifery.

If there were difficulties I would perhaps have to do a forceps delivery and in the very early days I would also have to arrange the anaesthetic.

I also remember an ear, throat and nose surgeon in East Kilbride who was known to attend a patient’s home and just yank out their tonsils on the their kitchen table. That was nothing to him.

Thankfully I was not involved in that but at the practice we would do our own casualty, with people coming in with some nasty looking cuts and injuries which we would just stitch up ourselves.

I’ve been a patient at Hairmyres in recent years and the service from the staff has been superb.

Quite simply I have been astonished by the level of professionalism and dedication of all the staff so I can have no complaints.

I certainly have very much enjoyed working for the NHS. It really is an excellent service and although things do go wrong it is, by and large, the best in the world.