After 22 years at Angaston Medical Centre, Dr Tom Ryan had his last day at the clinic on Friday, and it was not without a pang of sorrow.
“It’s kind of not my preferred option, but it’s just the way life has happened,” said Dr Ryan, who has left the practice in order to give up commuting and spend more time with wife, Kathy Romeo at their Adelaide residence, after they sold their Angaston property in May.
“I think the Chinese have a saying that any fool can wander through life, but a wise person plans the journey. I’ll let you decide into which camp I fall!”
Dr Ryan started with the practice in August, 1999, freshly returned from six months of doing obstetrics in England.
“The first job I ever got from the internet was Angaston Medical Centre,” laughed Dr Ryan.
“In those days, it was a lot smaller. I became the fifth person on the after hours roster, and now we’ve got, I think, about 14.”
Rural general practice has long been a passion of Dr Ryan’s, getting his first taste for it during his final year of medical school.
“Until that stage, it wasn’t on my radar, but it was fantastic, I loved it,” he said.
His first general practice job was in Barmera, followed by Clare.
But with more than two decades in the Barossa, he has had the opportunity to not only work as a rural GP, but play an integral part in training upcoming generations of rural practitioners.
“Once a month I go down to the South East and look after the doctors in the general practice training programme for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine,” he said.
“I’ll still be doing that, a day or two per week, and then something else!
“I’m still very keen to be involved in rural medicine in a teaching capacity, and I might be doing some rural locum work.
“I’m trying to get involved in at least some way to ameliorate the workforce shortages in South Australia.”
Dr Ryan said it has been a privilege to see the development of AMC over the past 22 years, in particular the trainee programme which has been running for 18 years.
“I think in general the culture has been really terrific. We’ve had a very strong emphasis on education,” he said.
“We did it for two reasons, one altruistic, one terribly selfish: We thought that it would be nice to give back and train doctors, and also it is a potential source of workforce for us, and it has been so over the years.
“It’s been very gratifying to connect that pipeline from undergraduate to early post graduate to fully qualified doctor.”
As for life outside work, Dr Ryan and his family have “enjoyed every minute” of calling the Barossa home.
“We’ve made amazing friends,” said Dr Ryan, who’s two now-adult sons, Conor and Matthew attended Angaston Primary School and Faith Lutheran College, Tanunda.
“People have been amazingly kind, and helpful in my idiotic adventures as a backyard vigneron!
“If you recall the old Paul Hogan Show, I was like Strop to Hoges! There are plenty of people who have looked on my endeavours with a mixture of bemusement and bewilderment.
“It’s been such a privilege to work in a community that’s so dynamic and vibrant and welcoming, and enormously friendly.”
Speaking on behalf of AMC, Business Manager, Mr Michael Ryan said Dr Ryan had always provided direction and encouragement, describing him as a fun person in what can often be a serious environment.
“In short he has been an asset to the organisation and will be greatly missed by not only his patients, the community in general, but mostly his working family who admire him so much,” he said.