Bay Centre Medical celebrated its 50th anniversary last Sunday, with a gathering at the Fig Tree restaurant in Ewingsdale.
Practice Manager, Karina Masterson, told staff and invited guests, ‘What started as a small clinic with a handful of staff members has blossomed into a cornerstone of healthcare in our community’.
She outlined the history of doctors, nurses and admin staff from the past five decades, some of which were present and still practising.
Practice established in 1974
Ms Masterson said founding partners Ethel and Denholm established the practice in 1974, with Dr Peter Roger joining the following year.
Doctors Ian Curley and Alan Reid came on board in the following years, along with doctors Jim Hounslow, Doug Mouncey and Mark Hampson.
‘Doug is almost celebrating his 50-year mark as a GP, having gained registration in 1977’, she said.
‘The myth that is Dr Jim Hounslow, making his mark as a practice partner and a solo practitioner of his own practice, hung up his stethoscope in 2011.
‘Mark being somewhat the poster boy of BCM, loved by both the ladies and men of Byron Bay, is travelling the world and still a locum to this day’.
In 1995 Dr Ross Simpson joined the practice, along with Dr Alain Mackie and then Caryll O’Shaughnessy.
In 2007, Dr Greg Gover was welcomed to the centre.
As for practice managers over the last 50 years, Dr Roger believes there have been three: Valarie Armstrong, Pam Woolcott, and current manager, Karina.
In 2010, Dr Matthew Wood joined the centre, and in 2023, two new partners were welcomed to replace Dr O’Shaughnessy – Michaela Rickcord and Neil Hannah.
Long-time loyalty
Karina added, ‘I must mention the long-time loyalty of nurse Helen Shevellar who did 33 years at Bay Centre Medical, only reluctantly retiring in 2017’.
‘Helen was always there for the patients’.
‘Each and every one of you past or present, have been the foundation of the best medical practice in Byron Bay’, she said.
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