PJ TAYLOR talks with a respected, well-rounded man who has attended to the health needs and issues of east Aucklanders for three decades as he heads into retirement.
Where were you born and grew up?
I was born in Hamilton in 1960 and grew up in a family with two brothers and two sisters. I attended Woodstock Primary School (which even then was a cool name!), Southwell School, and Hamilton Boys High School. My parents encouraged us to try as many things as we could, so we all played sports, dabbled in art and took swimming and music lessons. My sisters followed my mother in having an aptitude for the piano, but for some reason I played the recorder as a lot of children did as a “first” instrument. I continued with it into my teenage years and played with the local recorder society and even did a recording on National Radio. I dabbled with the piano and guitar thereafter but more for relaxation than any serious musical endeavour.
I mostly remember being keen on sport, playing football and cricket whenever I could, making the school First XI in both sports at high school. My father was very keen to be out on the water, so holidays were often spent boating, fishing and swimming at Lakes Taupo and Tarawera, but mostly at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula. We camped for many years at Whangapoua and mostly cooked on an open fire. With several other families, we children swam, surfed, water-skied, fished, harvested crabs and mussels off the rocks and came and went as we pleased. Looking back this seems like the golden age of the 1960s and 1970s to me now. I was privileged to enjoy those times and have since endeavoured to provide similar experiences for my own children.
When did you decide on a career in medicine and where did you train?
During my final year at school, I was really at a loss as to what I might do. I thought I might stay at home and go to Waikato University to do a science degree. But my mother, in particular, insisted I’d be better off spreading my wings and attending university elsewhere. She was clearly aware I needed to experience life on my own a bit more! My uncle, Dr Mayne Smeeton, was the New Zealand Olympic Team doctor around that time and he encouraged me to try medicine. So, I went to Otago University and spent the next six years living and studying in Dunedin. It was busy and at times quite stressful as it always seemed that there was more to learn and remember than was humanly possible. Of course, that has remained the case all my working life as we General Practitioners have to learn to do the best we can without getting overwhelmed! Thankfully, my love of sport was a great stress reliever as I played football for the University Club most weekends. Some of the great friendships developed within those teams remain to this day.
What did you do once you were qualified as a doctor?
After graduating, I ended up in Palmerston North Hospital for two years and then did my GP training there and in Levin. I then travelled around doing GP locums in Palmerston North, Tauranga and Hamilton. I was keen to travel overseas and just got into the United Kingdom prior to turning 28, which at that time was the cut-off age for getting a two-year working holiday visa. I did locums in and around London and out at Gravesend in Kent. As they were mostly short-term contracts, I could travel within Europe in between work stints. I met my wife Sara during this time and after a few months travelling in South-East Asia we ended up in Sydney where I worked in a general practice in North Sydney. Sara, also a doctor, worked in a paediatric hospital in central Sydney. We got married there and spent a couple of years enjoying the city.
What are the best aspects of being a doctor, and when did you arrive in east Auckland?
I was never very keen on the aspects of doctoring that involved working in a hospital, so general practice was always attractive to me. I think the variety of people you meet and being involved at the initial stages of healthcare including health prevention are the most enjoyable aspects. When I started at the original Pakuranga Medical Centre in 1995, in the little old shopping centre at the corner of Reeves Road and Gossamer Drive, my first child had just been born and it was with the expectation that I would be making my career as a GP there – and so it has proved to be. Over the years I have loved getting to know my patients and really just being available to them as they needed a medical adviser in their family’s lives. I have certainly learned as much, if not more, from my patients as they have from me. Times have changed quite a bit. Getting an appointment with any doctor now is often taking precedence over achieving continuity of care with your regular GP. There are multiple reasons for this including corporate ownership of practices and many doctors working part-time. But I think we will all regret it if we don’t foster patient access to their regular GP in the future.
Do you have any thoughts on how New Zealand could improve its efforts in keeping our health workers here?
Our health system is certainly struggling to cope, particularly since Covid. This is a worldwide issue right now. We need to encourage more doctors to train as GPs and encourage overseas GPs to come and work in New Zealand. However, we need to make it attractive to work as a GP. Work is being done to improve the work life balance of GP, but I do feel there is still a lot more to be done. The model of care and funding for general practice needs constant review to remain sustainable. If not, young doctors will continue to shun general practice as a career in favour of other specialties – and we will all be the poorer for that.
In your downtime, where are some of your favourite places in east Auckland to visit?
I’ve never lived in east Auckland. I wouldn’t have found it easy to live in the same area I was practising as a GP. We moved to Mt Eden when our three children were preschoolers and have lived there since. We live at the foot of Maungawhau which has been a wonderful place to walk, run and cycle over the years. The views of Auckland from the summit are pretty special. Having said that, I’ve enjoyed Lloyd Elsmore Park and Eastern Beach, too. Outside of work I continued to enjoy various sports and the outdoors. As a family we’ve completed a number of the Great Walks as well as various camping trips. I continued playing football and as my two sons got older it was great that we were all able to play in the same seven-a-side team for a year or two.
Through my children, particularly my daughter, I got into orienteering for many years. The combination of off-road running with the not insignificant challenge of map reading became an addictive challenge. It took me to many out-of-the-way and beautiful places. I competed in Australia, Sweden, and at the world masters’ champs in Latvia. As running became more difficult due to my aging hips and knees, I took up pickleball a few years ago, which remains my sporting passion. I’ve won medals for my age group in both New Zealand and Australia. Sara also plays and it’s fantastic we can both enjoy the sport together.
If there was one thing you’d like to see change in New Zealand society, what would it be?
Working all my life in general practice, not only in New Zealand but also in Australia and in the UK, has helped me to appreciate that we all have unique experiences to contribute to society as a whole. I would like to think we New Zealanders can continue to value every member of society and encourage innovation while still looking after those less fortunate.
