Skipton doctor Christopher Craig has been reflecting on changes that have taken place in medicine over the past three decades.

Dr Craig is due to retire today (Friday) after 31 years at the town's Dyneley House surgery.

A native of Buckinghamshire, he trained in London and moved to Skipton in 1972, working at the newly opened Airedale General Hospital.

He was part of its first intake of vocational trainees and as part of his training, he spent six months with Barry Brewster at the Settle practice and another six months under the wing of Michael Sweet Escott at the Otley Street Surgery - now Fisher Medical Centre.

In February 1975 he joined Drs Robinson, Merrell, Dennis and Gibson at Clifford House - now Dyneley House - and was thrown straight in at the deep end, dealing with long hours and duties such as hospital visits and home calls.

Dr Craig explained: "A lot more was expected of us in those days. We took it in turns to do the out-of-hours duties. This got tough if two were on holiday or sick as you found yourself on a one-in-two rota being expected to be at the surgery even after a night call."

With a career spanning over three decades, Dr Craig has a wealth of memories of his time as a local GP.

He was proud to play his role in major local emergencies, administering on-the-spot treatment to many of those injured in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Hebden, which killed 33 people, and in 1979 he had to be rowed to a house on Devonshire Place where a woman had drowned in the Skipton floods.

Other high drama situations have included delivering babies in the back of new age traveller buses and once being hit around the head with a poker by an elderly woman, who tried to lock him in her house.

The grandfather-of-two has observed many developments locally and in the wider profession.

He has witnessed the disappearance of hospitals like Raikeswood and Cawder Ghyll and many services at Skipton General Hospital and believes patients should continue to support Airedale to make sure it remains.

Among other changes, Dr Craig has seen doctors' hours and conditions improve, patients spending less time in hospital after treatment, more willingness among people to visit their doctor and an upsurge in drug and alcohol problems in the community.

Medicine has also moved on. Dr Craig explained: "I think cardiology has changed more than anything. If you had a heart attack you would never work again but now, touch wood, people don't often die of heart attacks. They have their arteries restored and they become fit again."

The GP believes cleaner air and awareness about smoking have reduced asthma and bronchitis cases and vast improvements in X-rays and scans have reduced the need for exploratory operations.

He added MMR jabs meant babies no longer contracted measles or rubella and the cure for cancer and auto-immune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, was not too far away.

Dr Craig, who became senior partner at the Newmarket Street surgery 12 years ago, said the best thing about the job had been helping people and seeing patients recover.

But he said he had always tried to be honest with patients, even if that meant delivering news they did not want to hear.

He confessed he might have a "tear or two" in his eye as he retired from the surgery.

"You get to know quite a few people. I think in the process of every day I see 40 or more people of all ages and races," he said.

He praised the "exceptionally skilled team" he was leaving behind at Dyneley House and said it was pleased to welcome Drs Lucy Checker and Rachel Pring.

Now that he is retired Dr Craig and his wife will be able to spend time at their home in France and fit in more visits to grandchildren, four-year-old Amy, and one-year-old Oliver, who live in London.