Dr Ravi Kumar says it has been a privilege working as a GP in Wexford for nearly three a long time and that he’s just a little “misplaced for phrases” on the mountain of properly needs, goodwill and playing cards following his resolution to retire from common apply.

I wish to thank the individuals of Wexford for all of the help, now and down via the years. It has been a pleasure for me to take care of them. I am misplaced for phrases actually. I solely discovered them the most effective,” he says.

One of many city’s hottest medical doctors, Ravi first got here to Wexford from India in 1982. He labored at Wexford Hospital after which a lot of different hospitals across the nation earlier than becoming a member of Tom O’Leary as a GP in Wexford in 1994, on the retirement of Frank Keenan. The brand new Surgical procedure in Clonard was opened that very same yr and Ravi has been a mainstay of medical care within the space ever since.

Ravi says that whereas he’s “loved each little bit of it”, the time is correct for him to step again from his work as a GP. “It has been a privilege. I’ll miss all of it however I felt the time had come to extricate myself from it and do different issues.”

He acknowledges that the world of healthcare has modified significantly since he began out in Wexford within the mid-nineties, however believes that GPs have the identical duties to the communities they serve. “Folks belief in you. You get to know them and their households so properly. I at all times felt I needed to offer individuals my finest.”

He says the position doesn’t come with out challenges and frustrations. “You need to do not forget that the GP is the primary level of contact for most individuals. GPs do as a lot as they’ll however can get annoyed with the following step. If we had a well-structured secondary care system we might do higher.”

For Ravi, retirement from common apply doesn’t imply hanging up the stethoscope or resting on the laurels. “I imagine it’s essential to maintain the thoughts energetic, to maintain taking challenges in life.”

He’s lengthy had an curiosity in sports activities medication and can be persevering with the work he’s been doing for the previous 12 years as staff physician for the lads’s and ladies’s squads at Wexford Youths FC.

Beginning subsequent month, he’ll even be working with the FAI, offering medical cowl for underage groups, a job that may require some journey overseas.

Whereas Ravi will not be concerned within the Surgical procedure in Clonard Avenue on a day-to-day foundation, sufferers will nonetheless encounter him now and again as he can be returning as a locum to cowl occasional vacation depart.His sufferers will now be underneath the care of colleagues Dr Leech and Dr Leslie.

The affable GP paid tribute to the “great employees who made the apply a cheerful place for me to work in”. And, as he settled right into a busy retirement, he thanked his spouse Rose and youngsters, Rachel, Richard and Rajiv, for all their help over time.