A Bradford GP known for treating her elderly patients to cheering days out will be retiring next month after 43 years in medicine.

Dr Urmila Gupta, 70, will retire in April after running her practice on Green Lane in Manningham for 36 years.

But Dr Gupta said she would find it impossible to turn her back on the career she loved so much.

"It's very difficult to leave a career completely," she said, adding that the staff and patients were like a family to her.

She said she had seen patients who had attended her clinic as babies grow up and forge lives of their own.

"My children are doctors, solicitors and bankers now," she said proudly.

For the past 14 years Dr Gupta has funded and organised sea-side trips for her elderly clients.

She said elderly people were often overlooked when charities and groups organised outings.

"We never think that our grandmothers or grandfathers would also like to go out," she said.

And she said it was heartbreaking that nobody had stepped forward to take on the responsibility of organising the annual events.

"They are asking who will do it? Nobody has offered. I don't know if somebody feels they can organise it. I would still be willing to pay," she said.

Dr Gupta, who has been working part-time for the past few years, does not plan to sit back and relax during her retirement.

She will still occasionally practise at colleagues' surgeries and is also ready to embark on a series of alternative healing courses, such as reiki and acupuncture.

Dr Gupta, a strong believer in allergies being the cause of many illnesses, and also in the power of alternative therapies, said she planned to find out more about both topics.

Past and present patients will have the chance to say goodbye to Dr Gupta at a surgery open day tomorrow between 2.30pm and 5pm.

On Monday, April 10, the patients on Dr Gupta's books, of which there are approximately 2,000, will be relocated to Manningham Clinic in Lumb Lane.

Until then, the opening hours and phone number for the Green Lane surgery will remain the same.

To find out more about the move, or to offer help in organising day trips for the elderly, call the surgery on (01274) 740371.