A well-known and respected Keswick doctor has hung up his stethoscope after practising at the town’s Castlehead Medical Centre for more than 20 years.
Dr Peter Hemingway, 60, carried out his last consultation at his surgery on Wednesday and bid farewell to colleagues and staff at a celebratory retirement lunch at the centre.
Born in Durham and brought up in Cheshire, Dr Hemingway qualified at Edinburgh Medical School and has worked in the Scottish city as well as in Newcastle, Oamaru in New Zealand and briefly in London. For two years he trained as a GP at the West Cumberland Hospital and then got a job at the James Street Practice in Workington where he worked for 10 years.
The father-of-three arrived at Keswick in the autumn of 2003, replacing Dr Maurice Hamilton, a man who was very much embedded in the Keswick community.
He said that he had mixed feelings about retiring but added: “At some point you have got to go. I am not unhappy with the job, I am not ill but at some point I have to stop working. I absolutely enjoy going to work.
“It’s a privileged position to be in. You get to know people well especially when you have been here for such a long time. Despite the bureaucracy and management changes, the day-to-day job is seeing people and doing your very best to help them. I have been here such a long time it is almost like sitting down and having a conversation with friends.
“I am going to miss colleagues and patients and seeing people on a daily basis. I want to say a heartfelt thanks to the patients and staff.”
Dr Hemingway, who is a member of Keswick and Lorton tennis clubs, Bassenthwaite Sailing Club and West Cumbria Canoe Club, plans to go travelling around Europe in a camper van when he settles into retirement. He was also a volunteer with Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team for 13 years and spent a year with Keswick Mountain Rescue Team.
He lives locally with his partner, Gillian, a former GP at Castlehead, and has three children, Christopher, 33, Graham, 32, and Katrina, 28.
His replacement is Dr Kate Coombes, from Newcastle, who will arrive in September.
