Peter Donohoe has filled a script for retirement, hanging up his stethoscope for the last time on Saturday.
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After almost 40 years of tests, diagnoses, treatment and consultations, the beloved Wagga doctor has bid adieu to a life of service – providing a spoonful of friendship to help the medicine go down.
The former Calvary Hospital medical services director said he was leaving his childhood hometown and the change would be bittersweet.
Dr Donohoe fondly recalled the relationships he had developed with his many patients at Kooringal Medical Centre and Peter Street Medical Centre.
He was given a dose of nostalgia as he said farewell to his very first – and last – patient whom he first saw in January, 1978.
Sue Ellis said it was going to be hard to see her doctor of almost forty-years go.
“I can still see him walking through there and I remember thinking, ‘My goodness me, he’s a young man’,” Ms Ellis said. “And I’ve watched him grow from there. I’m going to miss him.”
Dr Donohoe said he felt humbled and honoured to care for patients – like Sue – he now considered friends.
“It’s a privilege,” he said.
“Not only to provide care but to be involved in the most private realm of someone’s life.”
With a special interest in obstetrics and paediatrics Doctor Donohoe said he delivered more than 3000 babies in his first 20 years of practice.
Across the next 20 years, he worked as a general practitioner, a defence force medical officer and as a member of many committees in the medical community.
Dr Donohoe said it was an unique honour to make positive contributions to the lives of his patients – many of which he had seen grow through various stages of life.
“It’s certainly with a heavy heart I’m leaving,” he said. “It’s with mixed emotions my wife, Trish, and I move to Lake Macquarie to be closer to our family.”