Highly-respected Harborough GP is retiring at the end of this month

A highly-respected Market Harborough GP is retiring at the end of this month.

Dr Hamant Mistry, 58, is leaving Market Harborough Medical Centre on Coventry Road on Thursday June 30 after devoting four decades of his life to the NHS.

The vastly-experienced family doctor and regional primary health care leader is now looking forward to criss-crossing the world and doing a bit more gardening.

“It’s obviously going to be very different for me.

“This is a big decision because this is a job that I love, it really has been a vocation.

“I started out when I was just 18 before doing my medical training in London and Oxford.

“And I’ve gone on since then to spend 40 years working in the health service,” said Dr Mistry, who lives locally.

“I was putting in 100 hours a week when I was helping out as a student and I was on call 24 hours a day when I came to Market Harborough 27 years ago.

“I’ve never worked less than 50 hours a week since moving to our busy medical centre here.

“So I’ve put in the hard yards and it’s time for a break,” said the dad-of-two.

“I’ll take three months off for a start and take stock.

“The one thing they don’t tell you when you go into the health service is that it always cause collateral damage to your own health.

“There hasn’t been anything serious but I have had issues over the last two to three years.

“We all know that the Covid pandemic has posed a massive challenge to the NHS as well as the entire country over the last two years.

“I had Covid myself six months ago and I wasn’t fit to work for a month,” said Dr Mistry.

“We have regularly lost members of staff off work because of the virus.

“But we are now striving to increase the number of our patients’ face-to-face appointments with our GPs as we start to come through the other side.

“I’d say that 50 per cent of my appointments are face-to-face again now with the rest on the phone.

“But I will always see my patient in my office if I think that is the right thing to do,” said Dr Mistry, senior partner at the practice for the last five years.

“I’ve also been a key member of management here for the practice since 2000.

“I’ve served on the executive teams of regional primary care trusts and primary care networks for many years.

“I was thrilled to help get the £7 million St Luke’s Hospital built in Market Harborough after 14 years and to open the new medical centre in Husbands Bosworth in 2018.

“I’m proud to have worked here, we have a very good group of doctors who all practise medicine to a very high standard.

“I love travelling and am looking forward to flying to countries such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

“I also enjoy fine wines and fine dining so I’ll have to get back into the gym and into the garden as well,” smiled Dr Mistry, who said Market Harborough Medical Centre now has over 26,000 patients while their Husbands Bosworth complex has over 4,000.