Hugh Schuitemaker, Murray Pioneer

Progressing the quality of medical care in the Riverland has been a career-long goal for a local doctor who is set to retire.

Renmark-based GP David Rosenthal will today retire after 50 years of practising medicine in the community.

Dr Rosenthal said pathways had been created to ensure that new young doctors were retained in the Riverland.

“It’s a time of considerable reflection, having been a doctor here for 50 years,” Dr Rosenthal said.

“I feel comfortable retiring, particularly so because I think Renmark, and probably the Riverland, have enough doctors to provide people with good care. Previously for many years that wasn’t the case.

“The improvement started when Flinders University established its rural clinical school in Renmark, and that was very effective in attracting medical students to study in the Riverland, and to have more opportunities than they had if they stayed at university in Adelaide.

“That was very successful at an undergraduate level”¦ the Riverland Academy of Clinical Excellence has in turn given those students, and others an opportunity to train further in the Riverland.”

Dr Rosenthal said practising in the Riverland provided doctors an opportunity to develop skills in numerous areas.

“Young medical students obtain their degrees and are then able to deliberately train to be rural doctors,” he said.

“There are opportunities for GPs to still undertake procedural work, together with work in emergency medicine, and that’s the stuff that some rural doctors really want.

“They don’t want to consult in an office practice 24/7, they want to get out and do other things.”

Dr Rosenthal said the Riverland General Hospital was an example of how medical facilities in the region had improved.

“I remember the huge debate about where the new hospital might be”¦ several towns thought they could have the hospital,” he said.

“With the wisdom of hindsight, I think it was sensible to put it in Berri.

“The aim was to establish a centre that would supply more complex care to Riverland residents, (and) that’s happening.”

Dr Rosenthal said seeing increased access to Riverland health services had been personally rewarding.

“Fifty years in rural medicine have taught me that things ebb and flow,” he said.

“It was important to take the rare opportunities for improvement as they arose.

“The connectivity between rural and urban has changed enormously, and that’s largely due to technology and the ability to transmit information.

“It’s hard to remember (all the highlights) over 50 years. It has been a privilege to be involved in family and individual health care.

“There have been wins and losses, as inevitably occurs when practising medicine”¦ we can’t get away from that, but what we must do is try to factor in risk and to manage it.

“I’ve enjoyed spending time trying to improve the visibility of rural medicine at national, state, and local levels. My philosophy was always to try, in some small way, to contribute to the progress of medical practice in the Riverland,”

This article appeared in the Murray Pioneer, 26 June 2024.