A DOCTOR who was instrumental in establishing specialist stroke and dementia units at Warrington Hospital is hanging up his stethoscope after more than 35 years of service.

Dr Graham Barton will serve his last day in the post today, Thursday, before beginning a phased retirement having first worked at the hospital in 1979.

During that time he has been a key part of establishing the stroke unit, which celebrated its 20th birthday earlier this year, and more recently in 2014 the specialist-dementia Forget Me Not ward.

The 60-year-old said: “From about the age of eight I’ve always had a desire to do medicine and if anybody asked me what I wanted to be I would’ve said a doctor.

“Whether that goes back to my nana, who had a number of illnesses, I don’t really know – probably what has made the most significant effect on my life is the fact that as a young lad I became a Christian.

“I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour and what would follow on from that has really been the motivating force for whatever I have tried to do.”

The Penketh resident became a consultant at Warrington Hospital in 1989 and one of his first major acts in the role was to develop a rehabilitation service for elderly patients.

He said: “Rehabilitation in the old-style wards was just taking a few patients down in a lift and doing a bit of physiotherapy two or three times a week.

“A group of us from the multi-disciplinary team got together and created a rehab ward that would take all patients from the surgeons and medics who thought nothing could be done.

“I just took them over and we treated them and let other people see the benefits that it could have.”

Following on from that, Dr Barton was crucial to the development of the hospital’s stroke rehabilitation ward and acute stroke ward – which would go on to merge and form the specialist stroke ward, a unit that turned 20 in May.

Dr Barton added: “Amongst those group of patients that have rehabilitation are older people with strokes.

“It was recognised that we had expert neurotherapy skills going into these older people and they were improving, whereas younger stroke patients were stuck on a general medical ward – nobody had a particular interest in them because it was felt there wasn’t at that time much that could be done.”

Two years ago came another huge achievement, the opening of the Forget Me Not ward – an innovative specialist dementia unit – with the help of a £1m grant from the King’s Fund.

Dr Barton added: “If you’d have said to me you’re going to end your career with an interest in dementia I’d have said don’t be daft.

“I always felt that patients with dementia was a bit like the lost tribe – nobody particularly wanted them on their ward, they caused problems with managing behaviour and they were often in for a long time.

“Not only did we need a different environment, we also needed a different approach which we had to basically learn ourselves.

“We have evidence to show that when people come to the Forget Me Not unit their abnormal behaviour almost immediately reduces.

“Even with someone with very advanced dementia, if you can find a piece of music that has meant a lot to them and you play it it’s amazing what can happen – it’s far better than any medication a doctor can give.

“It’s not a nice illness, don’t get me wrong – there isn’t a cure and you wouldn’t want a relative having it, but once that diagnosis has been made there is a lot more that we can do now.

“I’m delighted for the patients with dementia and their carers who for a long time have had the rough end of the wedge in terms of the care they’ve been able to get.”

Dr Barton will spend a well-earned retirement working with the Hebron Church in Longford, spending time with his six-month-old granddaughter and pursuing his hobbies of photography and gardening.

He added: “Having done 37 years of on-call I’m glad to be leaving that behind.”