THE key message Andrew Brommeyer has always given prospective general practitioners is to always remember what a privilege it is to be invited into people's lives.
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Dr Brommeyer will retire on Tuesday, honoured to have spent almost 44 years helping Ballarat people to be at their best health.
The 68-year-old said the COVID-19 pandemic had probably kept him working a little longer than he had planned. He felt plenty of his cohorts were in a similar position.
But the time felt right now.
"As you get older it is harder to keep up with technological change needed," Dr Brommeyer said. "Things have changed in medicine so much, technology advances can become overwhelming. I've taught medical students about practice and some of the ways we're used to doing don't always fit with the current.
"As you get older, your capability doesn't alter at all. In general practice, you quickly find you're either a people-person and able to interact with people at the right level, or you're not."
As you get older it is harder to keep up with technological change needed [...] your capability doesn't alter at all. In general practice, you quickly find you're either a people-person and able to interact with people at the right level, or you're not.
- Dr Andrew Brommeyer
Dr Brommeyer moved to Ballarat as an intern at Ballarat Base Hospital in 1978 and two years later moved into a small family practice in Lydiard St with his wife Liz Moore, who is also GP.
When he started practising, Dr Brommeyer said diagnostic ultrasounds were not about and instead GPs had to do "horrendous" investigations into conditions such as on the gall bladder.
Another "investigation phenomenon" has been MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, replacing the need for neurological reflexive tests to best pinpoint conditions such as brain lesions.
Medical technology continued to fascinate Dr Brommeyer.
"The future of medicine will rely a lot more on genetic things available and biological treatments for asthma, skin diseases and migraines," Dr Brommeyer said. "Another terrific thing is how we can tailor chemotherapy to individual tumours."
Dr Brommeyer's passion has been in occupational health, a field he said that had started to burgeon as its own in the 1980s.
The past few years, Dr Brommeyer has closely pursued this interest. He and Dr Moore moved to UFS Medical in Doveton Street North when it opened 11 years ago and with this was a chance to shift from straight general practice.
"We spend one-third of our life at work and there are huge interactions for our health on impacting our work, and our work impacting our health, aside from workplace injuries. If it's one-third of your life, then it is also an important third," Dr Brommeyer said.
"Providing occupational health expertise in the industry means it doesn't impinge then as much on general practice. It encompasses everything from heart disease determinants to injury management."
Dr Brommeyer said the pandemic was an unexpected new challenge in the field.
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As he closes his working life, Dr Brommeyer said he would most miss his colleagues, who he viewed as a "therapeutic team" from reception through to the person handling Medicare claims.
"Everybody is part of helping a person to improve their health in the broadest sense," Dr Brommeyer said. "If you're able to see the same person when you enter the clinic they might ask 'how's grandma?' or 'how are little Jimmy's tonsils?' and that's important."
Dr Brommeyer enters retirement with plans to get fitter, keep his brain active, step up his woodwork and to spend quality time with his five grandchildren.
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