By Tyler Marr

Longtime ophthalmologist commemorated with plaque, room naming at Victoria Hospital

Sep 30, 2018 | 1:50 PM

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.

“My dad was all about the patients and the families,” she said. “The catch term today is family centred care and patient centred care and team medicine. Decades before that was in our lexicon, that is what my dad practised.”

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Susan was influenced heavily by this, she said and carries it throughout her leadership roles within Alberta Health Services.

Her father, she said, viewed his role as a physician as “one of a vocation of dedication that extends beyond the hospital,” noting his membership with the Prince Albert Rotary Club, Red Cross and 20 years on the disciplinary committee with the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Though he has not worked at the Victoria Hospital since 2001, Susan said seeing the hospital, even all this time later, recognize him for his service was special.

“In this day and age, when … people come and go and careers come and go … people cared and remember,” she said. “He did uplift people and he cared about this whole community and clearly the community cares back.”

Dr. Todd Buglass joined George in ophthalmology practice in 1996 and described the commemoration as emotional. George’s dedication to the patient and family centred approach to medication is what Buglass said he continues to strive for in his practice today. Buglass also lauded George’s pursuit of innovation.

Asked his most fond memory: “I think his Scottish twinkle in his eye, the smile on his face and he always had time to visit.”

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr