By JESSE GRAHAM
AFTER more than 30 years of work behind his desk and in the houses of people around Healesville, Doctor Peter Carruthers has hung up his stethoscope and retired.
Dr Carruthers officially finished up at the Healesville Medical Centre on Thursday, 24 March, more than 30 years after starting on 1 April, 1985.
Speaking to the Mail in the lead-up to his retirement, Dr Carruthers said it was his mother that inspired him to get involved in medicine, even though he admits he was “more an arts student”.
“My parents were in the generation where … you had achieved very well if you could have a doctor in the family, or be a doctor,” he said.
“Nowadays, it’s not so much of a big deal, but, back then, if your son or daughter did medicine, whoa, they were set for life.
“I found the course not really to my liking – my better subjects were literature and English, and I found the medical course very science-based, and so I didn’t really find it terribly enjoyable.”
After finishing university, Dr Carruthers did an intern year at the Goulburn Valley Hospital in Shepparton, where shifts were 12 days on, two days off.
“You’d be on call from eight o’clock Friday morning to six o’clock Monday evening,” he said.
He said doctors could sleep in the residents’ quarters, but being on call for the emergency department meant calls would soon come to get back to work.
“I answered the phone one night and dropped it in my sleep,” he said.
“The nurse was yelling at me down the phone, ‘Wake up!’, it was ridiculous – it was too long.”
From there, he worked a year at Ferntree Gully’s Angliss Hospital, a year at Maroondah Hospital, six months at the Royal Children’s Hospital, six months at the Eye and Ear Hospital and another year at the Angliss to work on his training.
He said his first choice was to head to the Bright and Beechworth area to find work, but his wife at the time was teaching in Croydon, and so Healesville became an option.
“So when Healesville came up, we thought, ‘There’s a compromise’,” he said.
“You’ve got a hospital, it’s country, but you can go back to Melbourne. And, really, it’s been a perfect compromise.
“I’m really happy. It’s been a lovely place – and Healesville’s gotten better over time.”
He said the town had two benefits – the first was allowing him to do “interesting” medicine, such as delivering babies, administering anaesthetics and hospital care.
“The second has been getting to know patients personally,” he said.
“People are lovely, and friendly, and they don’t hassle you – if they’ve got a question to ask, I’ll answer them. We’re not talking about looking for haemorrhoids.
As one of his patients over the years, Dr Carruthers was always a friendly face to see in the medical centre, and offered simple explanations for his diagnoses, as well as some time for happy conversation.
He said he became friends with the midwives and nursing staff (and, last year, married one of the nurses) at the Healesville Hospital, which he said wouldn’t happen in more suburban areas.
“You do not have that in the suburbs – you only get that in the country, and Healesville’s been great – a great hospital with great staff,” Dr Carruthers said.
Now that his work at the medical centre is done, Dr Carruthers said he would still work two half-days as an anaesthetist in Lilydale and, later, at the Healesville Hospital.
He said he also had plans to see family, see new parts of Australia and learn to play golf near a holiday property in Barwon Heads.
“There’s a lot of Australia I haven’t seen,” he said.
“I’m ready. I mean, anyone can work forever, and you work, ultimately to make an income to live your life – but there’s a time when you’ve got to look ahead and go, ‘I don’t know how long I’m going to live’.
“I’ll be 60 this year … I want to be able to do the things while I’m still healthy.”
