Consultant calls time on 24-year career serving Downe Hospital

Consultant calls time on 24-year career serving Downe Hospital

16 January 2019

ONE of Downe Hospital’s longest serving consultants has spoken fondly of the “very caring community” she has left behind as she embraces retirement.

Dr Helen Whitehead was surrounded by colleagues and friends as they gathered to say a final farewell to the doctor who has worked in the hospital for the past 24 years.

While she officially stepped down as a consultant specialising in diabetes, endocrinology and general medicine last July, her official retirement function took place at the hospital on Friday.

The Downpatrick doctor has not been idle in ‘retirement’ as she is continuing to work as an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians, both throughout the UK and, more recently, in Singapore.

She will also be providing some support for hospitals throughout the South Eastern Health and Social Services Trust as a bank consultant.

However, she accepts that her years as a full-time consultant are now over.

Dr Whitehead said: “I feel that I’ve given a lot over the years and I know that I’ve come to a time in my life where it’s right to let other younger people take the mantle on.

“Downe Hospital is a very caring community. There are generations of nurses, doctors and people from families who work in the hospital and who have excelled in their jobs. I’ve been very happy and proud to have worked with them all.”

Dr Whitehead came to the old Downe Hospital in July 1994 as a young mother of two, with a seven-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.

She was to have her third child, another son, in the former maternity hospital where the new Downe Hospital now sits.

Originally from Glengormley, she graduated in medicine from Queen’s University and trained in hospitals throughout Northern Ireland. In 1986 she became a consultant and specialised in diabetes and endocrinology in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

She says that the best times at the Downe Hospital were in the very early years between 1994-1996 and from 2009 when the hospital moved to its new site.

“When I came to the Downe Hospital, there were two physicians — Dr Frank McAleenan and Dr Charles Jack — two surgeons who did everything, two obstetricians, three anaesthetists and one radiologist,” explained Dr Whitehead.

“We were operating the same services as the RVH as you had the accident and emergency department which was open 24 hours and dealt with everything, including trauma.

“The two obstetricians were on call every other night and delivered 1,000 babies a year in Downpatrick.

“With a small staff, things were often very difficult and challenging. But we had great camaraderie in the early years as we all worked together. We were a great team.

“However, as time went on certain services like Maternity were centralised and the maternity hospital closed.

“Of course, the best years were probably when we went into the new hospital in 2009 because the facilities were so amazing.”

She was also very involved with several project groups during the campaign to keep the hospital open.

Known as Helen McGuckan in her personal life as the wife of Gerard McGuckan, Dr Whitehead says she has found medicine a “very rewarding” career and would encourage other young people into the profession.

“I would say to young people, yes, there’s a lot of problems but most of these can be solved,” she added

“You will get to work with lots of different sets of people along with patients such as nurses, dieticians, occupational therapists, and other staff. 

“It’s a job where you are always stimulated, where there is always change but where you are always motivated.

“You never really get the chance to stagnate, so there is no getting bored as you might have in other jobs. There are lots of rewards, either by working with younger doctors and nurses and patients and their families.”