By Amy Pollock
AFTER 29 years of treating the Newtownards community and completing over 100,000 consultations in his career, a popular GP hung up his scrubs for the final time last week.
Dr Michael Webb (59), of Park Medical Practice, said the responsibility of watching over generations of local families has been a ‘huge honour’, but after years of juggling his GP partner role alongside being the medical director for Ulster Rugby, now is the time to ‘slow down a little bit’.
Dr Webb first started his career in 1995 after obtaining a medical degree from Trinity College Dublin followed by a sports medicine degree from University of Bath.
After a short period of locuming, he secured a position at Newtownards Health Centre (now Regency Medical Centre) in 1996, became partner a year later, and remained a steadfast member of the team for almost 30 years.
As he looks to focus on sports medicine, Dr Webb said deciding to step away from general practice has ‘not been easy’, adding that he will miss the practice, his colleagues and his patients.
“Both jobs were getting increasingly busy, so I decided it would be nice to slow down a little bit and have head space for one thing rather than having two big jobs,” he said.
“But it’s funny because when you make a decision like this, you do reflect on your career, and I suppose what’s really nice is if I had the time to do it all again, I wouldn’t do anything different.
“I think I’m incredibly lucky to be able to say that, because this is a great practice and my partners here are wonderful, the practice manager is fantastic, and the patients have been amazing.”
Out of his 30 years as a GP, Dr Webb said his greatest highlight was being trusted by Newtownards community.
“To be a GP is a massive honour as a job. You really are entrusted. You’re watching over generations of families, literally from cradle through to grave, and to get to know people and be given the privilege of looking after them and being trusted with their care is huge.”
He added that while being a GP has been incredibly rewarding, the role has not been without its challenges. “It’s a tough job, too. You deal with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of patients’ worries you carry with you along the way, always hoping things are going to turn out for the best.
“And I think it’s become increasingly pressurised as a job, especially in terms of patient demand as I think even if we could triple our availability of appointments, they would still all be used.
“So you’re trying to run the practice as best you can, to try and give as good a service to as many people as you can, and I think we’ve done that, all things considered, very well,” he said.
Dr Webb said his retirement from general practice will enable him to spend more time in the sports field, with family, and on the fairway. “I started working with Ulster Rugby 25 years ago and have been the main team doctor for the last 15 years, which is a completely different pace.
“I worked in the Sports Institute in Belfast as well between 2004 and 2015 as the sports doctor, so that was great to work with Commonwealth Games and Olympic Sports athletes too. “It’s been a busy career, so it’ll be nice to have a bit more time for family and golfing as well,” he said.
While he is excited for this next chapter, Dr Webb said he has found it hard saying goodbye to the practice. “I went into medicine to help people and I hope I’ve done that. I feel like the time is right, but it’s been a lot more emotional than I anticipated it would have been.
“I literally couldn’t have asked for better partners or a better practice manager. We are incredibly close, everyone gets on really well and they’re all just really good at their jobs.
“I’m going to miss the team, but it’s actually really nice to leave when you know it’s flourishing, and I’ll continue to pop in and hope to do the odd locum going forward as well to keep in touch,” he said.
