PROUD to have served as an old fashioned GP for nearly 20 years, Widnes Dr Lakshni Narayana has retired.

He said: "It's been brilliant, I've really had a wonderful time being an old fashioned doctor, I've had wonderful relationships with my patients over the years.

"People said 'you have dealt with me and now you are looking after my children'."

Dr Narayana joined the West Bank practice in 1975.

"I think the challenges then were very poor health, and also it was a working class population who were often unemployed," said the 61-year-old.

Challenges

"One of the biggest challenges now is the decline of families supporting each other. That has sort of disappeared and we have a lot more single mothers."

He said it was sad that many medical graduates saw traditional GP work as unattractive, because it was actually more rewarding than hospital work - and less stressful.

"I was doing 100 hours a week in hospitals and worked 47 hours as a GP," he said.

"Another sad thing is the present trend seems to be that GPs don't go to one place, they work then move on - but I'm old fashioned!"

Dr Narayana lives in Widnes, on Julian Way, and he said it gave him a lot of pleasure to be part of the community he served, especially so he could do out of hours' work.

He added: "One of the things that I gained most satisfaction from was looking after terminally ill patients who wanted to die at home."

Dr Narayana was also a trendsetter in working closely with district nurses, carrying out health promotions and monitoring chronically ill patients.

Changes

He pushed for changes in clinical services at Halton and Warrington Hospitals and for the creation of the new health centre in Widnes.

Dr Narayana has run the practice single-handed since 1986.

His son Previn joined the practice in 2002 and took over from him on April 1.

"I'm proud of the fact that the Narayana name is going to continue," he said.

"I really want to thank all the primary care nurses and reception staff who have worked with me. Without them I wouldn't have enjoyed the work as much."

He also thanked the PCT staff including Jim Wilson and Stephen Parry, and the local GPs, and said: "When I retire I'm going to spend more time with my long suffering wife Radha, and with my grandchildren - and tour the world!"