General Practice as it was - A Welsh GP in Labrador and the UK: A Welsh Gp in Labrador and the Uk

A biographical account of the life of a Welsh GP starting out in mid 1950s south Wales and late 1950s Labrador, Canada. Dewi Rees then became a GP in rural mid Wales before retiring to Warwickshire in 1980. Here is his fascinating story.

Review :
Dr Dewi Rees has worked in many fields of medical practice but has always remained a general practitioner at heart. In this book he gives an account of his lifes work from qualification in 1956 to the present day. After hospital appointments he went into general practice as a trainee in London for a year. Then, keen to get experience in medicine overseas, he took the bold decision to accept a post as Assistant Medical Officer with the International Grenfell Association (IGA), taking his young family to live in Labrador, Newfoundland. Returning to Wales in 1959, anxious to get more experience before going into general practice, Dr Rees was appointed Senior House Officer at Whitchurch Psychiatric Hospital for a year. These experiences equipped him to enter into General Practice and in 1960 he became a partner in a well-established practice in mid Wales, based at Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire. He remained there until 1974. The family then moved to Berkshire when Dr Rees was appointed a Medial Officer in the Civil Service Department in Whitehall, London where he worked for two years, moving in 1976 to a single-handed general practice in rural Warwickshire. In 1980, after four years in that busy practice, and having developed a deep interest in palliative medicine, Dr Rees was appointed Medical Director of St Marys Hospice in Birmingham where he worked until his retirement in 1990. His has not been an idle retirement. He has taken a keen interest in general practice as it is today and followed up his many research interests. These are the bare bones of the book but each chapter of his life is described with genuine honesty, an easy style, and an obvious appreciation of the many opportunities which have come his way. In Labrador, with Dr Paddon, the local doctor, they provided a medical service for the scattered population of the area, including the Inuit, American Indians and settlers. Using aeroplanes and snow mobiles and occasional dog sleighs, they travelled many miles to isolated outposts and Dr Rees recounts many anecdotes of the people he met, the medical emergencies they had to deal with and his family life in that remote part of Canada. The central part of Dr Reess book is the time he spent as a GP Principal in Llanidloes, where he spent 'the most intense and productive 13 years of my professional life'. Joining a practice where the two other partners were well established and experienced, he developed a keen sense of the needs of the patients in that rural practise, which covered a very wide area of Powys and parts of neighbouring counties. He also grew to appreciate the many skills and personal qualities of his partner, Dr Graham Davies, an exceptional GP and still a legend in and around Llanidloes. Many patients will recognise and remember those days of the 1960s and 70s when GPs would travel miles to outlying farms, day and night, rain or shine, and will find great interest in the stories of patients and events which they had to deal with. His work in the Civil Service and at St Marys Hospice demonstrates Dr Reess wide range of interests and specialist knowledge, but it is clear that his heart remains in face to face contact with the sick, the dying and the needy. In the chapters headed Retirement 1990 2012 Dr Rees discusses the changes which have taken place in medical education and in general practice and has many reservations about the way the NHS is being changed. While recognising that GPs need leisure and family time and that there are many advantages for patients in modern developments in medicine and communication, the potential loss of the personal touch is to be regretted. Like many retired family doctors he regrets the passing of the days when GPs had a personal relationship with their patients; when they lived, and often had surgeries, in the middle of their practice, and were pillars of the local community. This book is an absorbing, revealing and valuable reminder of an era of general medical practice which is unlikely to be seen again. Beryl Thomas It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council