A DOCTOR who is retiring after serving a Bradford community as a GP for 27 years has reflected on his career of serving his patients.
Alastair Bavington, 57, of Daisy Hill, who has worked at the Kensington Partnership practice in Girlington since February 1996, is calling time on his career.
Friday (September 29) was his last working day and his colleagues organised a special visitor, the Lord Mayor of Bradford, to see him on his last working day.
Dr Bavington, who began his career in medicine by working at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital.
He worked as a junior doctor for seven years before moving to the Kensington Partnership GP practice in Girlington, where he has treated generations of families.
Serving Girlington and surrounding communities, Dr Bavington said: "One thing that's true, from an inner city context, is there a lot of people who have illnesses relative to deprivation."
He has served a lot of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and said while the language barrier and cultural differences can create problems for some, he has been able to overcome those barriers.
Dr Bavington speaks fluent Urdu, a skill that has served him well and allowed him to earn the trust of his patients.
"As a kid, I grew up in Pakistan, and lived there until I was 12. My parents worked in a mission hospital there.
"My parents decided to settle in Bradford because they thought their skills would serve them well here."
When he started in his practice, he was the only doctor who spoke Urdu.
"Back when I started, 90 per-cent of my consultations were in Urdu, compared to about 30 to 40 per-cent now.
"I was mostly seeing elderly Asian patients and I was the only doctor who spoke their language.
"I think illness is a time when people feel under stress, frightened and confused. Being able to communicate properly makes the whole experience better for them."
"It has been a privelege to work for my patients over the years. They have been patient and grateful for the care they have received from the NHS."
Asked how his profession has changed since he started his career, Dr Bavington said: "There have been huge, huge changes, particularly in the way the NHS expects its GPs to work. There's never been a period of stability.
"In the early days, there was no technology. But Covid accelarated the development of IT tools to do the job.
"One of the other changes is that GPs don't always want to work in the inner cities, so we've always struggled to recruit GPs.
"Active practititioners, who are not GPs, now are a massive part of how we continue to practice as a GP surgery.
"This has led to my practice having to rescue three practices and incorporate them into ours. We went from 8,000 patients to 24,000.
Turning his focus to retirement, Dr Bavington has some plans for his future.
"Retirement is always a step into the unknown, but I've always been involved in the community in our local church. My wife is just newly started as a vicar, so they is extra impetus for me to support her."
But before he officially retired, the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Gerry Barker, visited him at Kensington Partnership on Friday.
"We dedicated this reception to Dr Bavington," said his colleague Ben Stockdale. "It's a nice send off for him.
"He was so loved by his patients. They're wounded that he's leaving.
"Dr Bavington has been really humble about it. He's working right up to his last day."
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