ONE of the region's longest-serving obstetricians is hanging up the stethoscope once his last patient is born.
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Dr Eugeni Mihaylov started work as an obstetrician and gynecologist (OB/Gyn) in Armidale in 2006.
He's currently one of just two full-time doctors working in the specialty in the city.
The veteran doctor said he will spend his retirement working on a small hobby farm.
"The retirement of a doctor is a slow process," he told the Express with a laugh.
"I have started the process and when I have no more duties to particular patients, I will be free to look for different direction."
After 16 years on the job in Armidale, Dr Mihaylov said he regularly runs into former patients and their children in the small city.
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He said he'd found a sense of belonging in the regional centre, full of people who are "kind and decent".
The Armidale job ended a long period of travel for Dr Mihaylov, who had worked in South Africa, New Zealand and elsewhere after growing up in Bulgaria.
"In a way sometimes it's embarrassing that I don't remember the faces because usually when I'm called I'm there for a job not to look, and socialise," he said.
With Dr Mihaylov soon to retire and the town's only other OB/Gyn Dr Nihad Abu-Asab taking long service leave, Armidale hospital was left without coverage for a weekend last month.
Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall called the staffing shortfall "unacceptable" and demanded an urgent intervention.
Dr Mihaylov said he has struggled to sell his private clinic and it will likely close. He told the Leader delivering babies is no longer a popular specialty for new doctors due to its demanding hours and unusual responsibilities.
He came into the specialty by accident, he said. He wanted to do general surgery, but there wasn't a training position for a surgeon. But, he said the job was one of the best there is.
"I will say that it is the satisfaction that after putting so many hours of reading studies training, you're able to help a person in need currently, and to hear a healthy baby cry, there is nothing more rewarding," he said.
Dr Mihaylov said the city will still have midwife coverage and the hospital will "do everything possible to provide the safe care for the women and so far, we are managing".
Hunter New England Health district was contacted for comment.
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Andrew Messenger
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
