G R E A T
Gisborne Gazette serving the southern macedon ranges JULY 2018 – FREE
Doctor to retire after 40 years caring for Gisborne Dr Rod Guy, a general practitioner in Gisborne for 40 years, will be retiring on Friday July 27. On his last day, the local community is invited to go to Gisborne Medical Centre to wish him well in retirement. When Rod started doctoring in Gisborne in 1978, there were only two other doctors in the area, pathology came once a week, and GPs did their own X-rays and delivered babies at the Bush Hospital in Hamilton Street. His patients came from as far as Diggers Rest, Lancefield and Melton, and local surgeries did not have nurses. Now, there are dozens of doctors in Gisborne alone, local pathology delivers results every day, specialist radiographers carry out X-rays and more sophisticated scans, and babies are no longer delivered in Gisborne. Rod says that medicine has become more compartmentalised, with doctors specialising in areas in which they are particularly interested, and nurses play a much larger role. He has enjoyed treating multiple generations of the same family, and says that just recently a woman came in for whom he had cared since birth and through the birth of her own children, and she recognised the stuffed Kermit the Frog in his surgery from her childhood. Dr Guy is a proud founder of a practice that began in one room of the local dentist's, and now comprises a cooperative team of receptionists, doctors, nurses, administrative staff, specialists and allied health workers. He himself has taken a special interest in orthopaedic medicine. Continued on page 6
Picture: CHRIS FLEMING
Rod Guy says he leaves medicine with mixed emotions, but looks forward to the time he will have for other interests.
Gisborne Gazette July 2018
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25/06/2018 8:19:50 PM