Longtime ophthalmologist commemorated with plaque, room naming at Victoria Hospital
A caring man with a commitment like none other to patient and family centred care decades ahead of his time.
That is how Dr. George Gilmour, a former ophthalmologist who passed away in September 2017, is described by his family and former fellow practitioners. His dedication to healthcare in Prince Albert and the North has been recognized through a plaque and renaming of the Ambulatory Eye Care room in the Victoria Hospital.
Gilmour was born in Scotland in 1937, immigrated with his family to Canada and settled in Prince Albert in 1968 when he began his practice in the city. For much of his time in the Gateway to the North, he was the lone ophthalmologist north of Saskatoon. He ran Saturday clinics for children with strabismus so they would not miss school, and routinely flew to Uranium City and other northern communities to treat those with diabetes-related eye illness.
His daughter Susan, a fellow doctor in Alberta, said her father approached practice as a privilege and was decades ahead in his philosophical and practical approach to medicine.