On Friday 24th June, Dr John Murphy will retire as G.P in Bridge Medical Practise and Point Road Crosshaven.
His career spans over 42 years, arriving in 1980 to join the practise of Dr Jack Scully. He worked in Bridge House, Main Street Carrigaline and Point Road Crosshaven.
General Practise was very different all those years ago, without the advantages of mobile phones or nurses, or indeed Secretaries or Receptionists. Surgeries ran for approximately 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. The remainder of the time was spent on house calls. A 1 in 2 rota during the week and at weekends combined to make it a challenging career. One that Dr Murphy absolutely loved.
From his arrival he had a vision of how to improve the medical care, of what, then, were two small villages, and to that end, over time, he introduced appointments systems in both surgeries, and A/N, Asthma and Vaccination clinics. His first Pr. nurse was Ms. Nellie McGinty, she was also one of the first Pr Nurses in Ireland. Not only had Nellie the role of Pr nurse she was also secretary and Receptionist and a devoted employee.
Dr Martin joined the practise a few years later and this formidable team continued to expand and improve General Practice. Dr Murphy qualified as a GP trainer over the years he has been responsible for introducing 23 doctors to the working schedule of a GP.
His present Registrar is Dr Diarmuid Linehan and he will complete his training this month. To compliment the GP training both doctors accepted 3rd and 4th year students from U.C.C to experience GP firs thand. More recently the practice has accommodated students from the University Limerick.
On the academic side Dr Murphy was active on both the ICGP and the RCGP. He was honoured to be appointed Provost to the latter college and he used this role to create a dialogue and then meetings with GP’s from Northern Ireland. It was at the height of the troubles and Northern Ireland GP’s were working under extreme difficulties. New friendships developed and a greater understanding of the workload both North and South of the border followed.
In recent years Dr Murphy has been active on ICGP council, at all times attempting to improve patient care and to enlarge the availability of services. Bridge House was home to the practice for many years, the move to the Primary Care Centre in 2017 was a very emotional transition. However, 5 years later the Doctors, Nurses and Staff relish the additional space and increased services on every level.
For Dr Murphy it has been a lifetime’s work but one that has provided him with many, many friends and a great sense of achievement. The entire team, Doctors, Nurses and clerical staff all wish him a wonderful retirement, happy in the knowledge that he leaves a progressive, caring practice which hopefully will continue to serve the ever expanding towns of Carrigaline and Crosshaven and hinterland.
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