After nearly half a century of practising, a local doctor will be hanging up his stethoscope for the last time this month.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Dr. Tony Rowlinson.
Q: What is your background? For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: I came here to practise in 1976. I joined a practice with Dr. Don Smith.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be a doctor?
A: I think I was interested in it because of the pediatrician I had growing up in Ottawa.
I visited Dr. Jeffrey regularly in Ottawa. I liked the atmosphere in his office. He was a very kindly, friendly kind of man.
I thought, I could do this work.
That’s how it all started.
Q: What kind of medicine do you practise now?
A: I’m a general practitioner, and over time it’s become more weighted toward geriatrics.
Most of the people I see are over 55.
It was a natural progression.
I’ve been working here for over 40 years.
I’ve been saying to patients in recent years that I think of their age as their age when I first met them. It’s kind of odd, because some of my patients are in their 70s or 80s and I think of them as 30 or 40 years younger.
Q: You practise out of 281 Ontario Street, which looks more like a residential building. It feels more residential than a clinical doctor’s office. Do you own this building? Does the environment have an impact on care?
Yes.
About 20 years ago, Dr. Smith and I moved into a new medical building and it got to be very expensive. It made sense to me that rather than paying rent out on a monthly basis and never seeing any of it back again, if I invested in my own building, I’d build up equity in that and it would be an investment.
I think environment always has an impact. I think people are more relaxed in here.
Most people, I believe, when they go to see a doctor or a dentist, are a little bit anxious even if they’re not aware of it.
If you’re in a more relaxed and informal setting, I think people are a little more physically and mentally relaxed.
It’s not something that’s quite so common anymore. People tend to go more to big clinics which I find sterile and unattractive.
Q: How has the medical profession changed over the years?
A: I’ve thought about giving talks on this now that I’m close to retirement.
One of the things I’d say is when I first started working in the emergency department, we didn’t have CT Scans, ultrasounds, obstetricians, psychiatrists, or ancillary workers.
It was a very different kind of medicine that we practised in the 1970s.
Q: Do you think it’s changed for the better or worse?
A: Well, I think change comes with its good point and things that maybe aren’t so good.
The big driver in medicine is economics, because... finances are limit and demand is almost infinite. People expect more of doctors than perhaps they did before. They want testing done, and they prefer that testing be done if not yesterday, then last week. They want it done immediately.
I know I’ve heard some of my colleagues say doctors don’t get the respect they got years ago, and that’s paradoxical and a bit counter-intuitive because years ago, they couldn’t do all the things they can do now.
Economics dictates that you have to see a lot of people, and to see a lot of people you have to use computers and more tests and it becomes a bit de-personalized.
Something I was reading about recently said that doctors can practise medicine without touching their patients, but human touch is really important for healing and just showing you’re caring about somebody.
But now, touch can also be kind of ambiguous. We’re all familiar with doctors who get in trouble because of inappropriate contact with patients. It’s a shame really, because I think one of the basics of medicine is, for lack of a better phrase, a healing touch, or showing something like empathy through touching people.
Q: You’re coming up on retirement, is that correct? When do you officially retire?
A: Yes, very soon. I officially retire at the end of December but I think I’m going to be doing, what i’ll call a victory lap. I’ll probably be staying on for another three months into March or April.
Q: You’ve seen Collingwood change over the past 40 years. Do you think it’s for the better, or worse?
A: Well, about two years ago, my wife came home from town on the weekend, and she was kind of agitated.
She said, “We have to move.”
I said, “Yes dear. Why dear?”
She said she couldn’t find a parking spot at the grocery store on the weekends. It’s a roundabout way of saying there’s a lot more people and it’s a lot busier than it was back in the late 1970s when it was just kind of a farming community.
The question arises in my mind, how much development is too much? And, can you slow it down, or would we want to slow it down?
I don’t have the answer to those questions.
Q: What do you plan to do in your retirement?
A: People expect me to give a schedule of what I’m going to be doing for each day of the week.
I don’t have definite plans.
I do know I want to spend more time outside hiking and biking and skiing.
I’ve spent nearly half a century dealing with very sick people. I’d like to spend some time with people who are very healthy.
What a concept.
A retirement open house for Dr. Rowlinson will take place Jan. 11 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Leisure Time Club on Minnesota Street. The event will be open to the public.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
