A CLACKS GP retiring at the end of the month has paid tribute to the people behind the NHS, saying it "wouldn't work just with a doctor".

Dr Kenneth Stirling first arrived in the Wee County more than 30 years ago when he accepted a trainee position in Alloa, taking up a full-time post in 1986.

He has been here ever since and, despite the challenges and changing tides, has had an incredibly-rewarding career filled with a variety of work.

For him, the people-side of healthcare has made it all worthwhile – providing care alongside great teams and seeing patients growing up and moving on.

He told the Advertiser: "You get to know people. I mean, I'm of a vintage where I've been at the same practice for a generation.

"I'm now seeing the children of people that I knew as children, and follow the families.

"The next generations have been born and moved on and, for me, that's a good thing because I live in the area.

"... I've gotten to know people quite well and I think that's good as a GP, to have some knowledge of your patients because you've been here a long time, but obviously that takes time to establish that."

Dr Stirling's route into medicine initially started with a summer job as a nursing auxilliary.

He spent time at the Prince Louise Scottish Hospital in Erskine, his first real experience of caring for people, which set him on the path towards the NHS.

After graduating from university, he held two six-month jobs in Glasgow, did four years of hospital medicine and went on to do some GP locums in the Polmont area.

He then arrived in Clacks for a trainee job at the old health centre in Alloa and would go on to become a partner of the eponymous Dr Stirling & Partners.

The 59-year-old is now welcoming retirement, which has been his plan for a number of years.

He is eyeing up further study in a field unrelated to medicine, but reckons it will be a big change.

Dr Stirling, who has always worked in the public sector, says his highlights have included the variety or work and getting to meet different people.

In his role, some things are more challenging than others, but there is always the opportunity to learn.

Changes within the health service, strains on budgets, targets and a lack of staff numbers often dominate the NHS.

And the obstacles are also visible in Clackmannanshire, with Dr Stirling & Partners being dissolved and taken over by the health board at the end of April.

It was renamed Hallpark Medical Practice and the move was put down to an inability to recruit doctors – despite numerous job adverts calling for candidates.

Although not able to put his finger on the cause of the decline in people wanting to become GPs, Dr Stirling said interest has definitely waned.

"There have been quite a lot of changes," he said. "When I moved into the practice at a time when jobs were very popular and you would have many people applying for the same job, but now there’s a lot of recruitment issues at the moment.

"The quoted figures at the moment are, when I left university, at least 50 per cent of graduates went into general practice.

"Nowadays, it’s something of the order of 15 per cent and that’s one of the reasons why we’re running out of GPs."

The shift isn't all bad, according to Dr Stirling, with the multi-disciplinary team including advanced nurse practitioners, community psychiatric nurses and more.

His own view is that this could be the new norm in general practice due the lack of GPs, unless there is a big change in training and recruitment.

And as for the future of healthcare, he said: "I think the NHS is a good service.

"I think the important thing is, and everyone will say this, it needs to be adequately funded and I don’t just mean money, I mean people and resources.

"I have strong feelings, personally, that to make the best use of it, it really should be a seven day a week service, but to do that you really need some sort of shift system."

And the main thing Dr Stirling will take away from his 32 years as a doctor, is the positive experience of working alongside others in the NHS.

He said: “The highlight I think is working with a good primary healthcare team... working with the district nurses, the health visitors.

“At the time I started we also had a practice psychiatric nurse and the interesting thing, that has come round, we now have one again some 30 years on.

"Working with other professions I like to mention, also working with a good team, and administrative team, within the practice, which helps the practice to run well for the patients as well as for the staff.

"I couldn’t do it on my own basically. My work works because I work with other people and we all work together.

"Doctors, admin staff, nurses, health visitors, all the rest of it, it’s very much a team work thing – it wouldn’t work just with a doctor."