A commentary by a retired family physician who lives in Saanich.

I came to Victoria and began practising right away in 1978. At that time, a typical family doctor would start the day by getting to the hospital early to look after the inpatients.

They would then head to the office to deal with an accumulation of paperwork, and to start seeing regular patients.

The day could well be punctuated by leaving the office to assist the surgeon at all levels of surgery. It was expected that the GP would undertake prenatal care and the delivery.

The end of the day would involve returning phone calls, of which there were many.

I remember undertaking housecalls on my way home for dinner or making the visit........

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