After more than four decades treating generations of local patients, Mooroopna GP Kuen Chan is hanging up the stethoscope in July.
Dr Chan opened the Goulburn Medical Centre 43 years ago at 115 McLennan St with his wife and practice manager, Eileen Chan, and the couple are looking forward to retirement.
Nearly 72, Dr Chan says his long career in medicine wasn’t always the plan.
Born in Malaysia, Dr Chan got into medical school “by default” thanks to his good scores but back then he didn’t actually want to be a doctor.
“My original plan was to become a pilot and in medical school I actually attended an interview to be a pilot,” he said.
“I was going to change course but the interviewer said “you are studying medicine, we don’t want you! Stick to medicine!
“That’s how I didn’t get my pilot licence and in some ways I’m glad because a pilot can’t keep flying at 72, but as a doctor I could keep going if I chose to.”
But Dr Chan said age was catching up with him.
“I could work from 8am to 9pm every night, it’s been going on for years, but in the last few months I notice at 6pm I feel tired already,” he said.
The pandemic has also played a part in “speeding up” the decision, placing enormous pressure on the clinic including one staff member deciding to retire due to the stress.
“We worked up to 14 to 15 hours a day but we were so lucky we and our staff didn’t get COVID,” Mrs Chan said.
“There were so many clinics locked down, so the patients had nowhere to go; there was only a few open, so we took them in for the sake of the community — they needed to be treated.”
As well as entering retirement, Dr Chan and Mrs Chan will be celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary on July 4.
Dr Chan graduated from medical school in Malaysia in 1976 and the couple came to Mooroopna the following year.
Dr Chan worked at Mooroopna Base Hospital for two years and Murchison nursing home for six months, before they started their practice in 1979.
“I was hunting high and low for a suitable place and this was on the main street and next to the police station,” Mrs Chan said.
“We did a bit of renovating to make it look like a clinic because it was a house before.”
Working in the medical profession for so long, the Chans have seen plenty of change, from ongoing personal development and accreditation to the physical aspects.
“I started with a typewriter, a pen, a diary and those patient card files and now we’re all computerised and 100 per cent paperless,” Mrs Chan said.
“The town has changed a lot; when we were here this road wasn’t busy, now it’s so noisy, so it has built up.”
The couple’s three daughters all grew up and went to school locally before setting off for university and following in the family footsteps to become, in age order, an anaesthetist, nurse and psychologist, and optometrist.
The whole family have loved living in Mooroopna and the couple plan to stay.
“I feel safe in the country town,” Dr Chan said.
“I wasn’t subject to any racism in this area – I feel the community accepts very well.
“It’s a multicultural area, I have a lot of Turkish patients, for example, Albanians come and see me and a lot of Asians that can’t speak other languages.
“I can speak Malay, Cantonese and Indonesian, so I can attract people from Asian countries.”
It seems the community has loved having them here too, with Dr Chan treating generations within families.
“I became like a real family doctor,” he said.
“It’s very satisfying because it means they have confidence to keep coming.”
One of those is Lara Trevaskis, who has had Dr Chan as her GP since she was six months old.
Her mum and nan were also patients of his.
“He’s very supportive and took everything into consideration,” she said.
“He’s a good listener and very funny, so we were all quite sad — he’s been around us for a long time. But it’s also exciting; he deserves retirement.”
He’s also had the dedication of patients who have moved away from Mooroopna but make the trip back to see him – from Hay in NSW to Broadmeadows in Melbourne, Wangaratta and Bendigo.
Now though, it’s time for the Chans to spend some more time with their two grandsons and “relax”.
“First I will catch up with my sleep,” Dr Chan said.
The couple say they’ll be around to make sure it’s a smooth transition for the centre’s patients as two new doctors step in: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners fellows Dr Gurshant Singh and Dr Elisa Beasley.