Top children's doctor hangs up the stethoscope
If you've endured the difficult scenario of having a child admitted to hospital in Canberra in the past 20 years, there's a good chance you've come across Graham Reynolds and his signature bright red bow tie.
Professor Reynolds is retiring as director of paediatrics and neonatology after 23 years of treating Canberra's sick children and more than 40 years in the field.
Specialising for many years in neonatology, Professor Reynolds has spent much of his career at the forefront of an emerging medical discipline.
When he arrived in Canberra in 1995 he was part of a fledgling team of two neonatologists and one paediatrician who oversaw a handful of beds. In the following 23 years he helped oversee the growth of paediatrics in Canberra to what it is now at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
"The vision then was, 'this is a big town that needs a really good paediatric medical service'," Professor Reynolds said.
"In a town of 400,000 people, where one-third of them are children, why haven't we got a big paediatric unit here?
"That was always fighting against the common Canberra mantra of, 'if you're sick you go to Sydney'."
He said battling the difficulties of being a small jurisdiction compared with other capital cities while providing a service to a region much larger than just ACT was a constant of his career.
Prior to his arrival in Canberra, Professor Reynolds was involved in laying the ground work for the growth of paediatrics in Townsville. He said he was proud of being able to set a vision and watch it be realised.
But for the father of three adult children, who can't estimate how many children and families he has interacted with in his two decades in Canberra, there is a greater purpose to his work.
"Kids are a joy to work with," Professor Reynolds said.
"And the joy of neonatology, which is why I did it, was because we were taking babies who were born prematurely, or under difficult birthing circumstances and taking them from a very vulnerable situation into normal life.
"Occasionally you get vomited on or peed on, which you don't normally in an adult practice, but you wear that. It's all good fun.
"Kids have terrible diseases and they get better and go on to lead normal lives, and you get to be a part of that process and a part of helping families cope with these problems."
Growing up in London, where he began his medical training and then with stops in Canada, Newcastle and Sydney, Professor Reynolds said he had always been drawn to paediatrics.
"I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, since I was 10 or 11," he said.
"It’s one of those things that stuck, you know some kids want to grow up and be an airplane pilot or a train driver, baristas now days, or computer nerds, but I wanted to be a children's doctor."
Professor Reynolds said his goal was to "not go past my use-by date" which determined his decision to leave, but he still has a clear vision he hopes the hospital can achieve.
"My vision had I been here for the future would be to have specialists around who were providing a service which would mean less and less reliance on the big children's hospitals in Sydney, but still maintaining a very family-focused perspective," he said.
"I think there's a potential for doing that."
He hopes the hospital can increase the scope for research into paediatric diseases and said the ability to keep training medical students in the hospital system and inspiring them to pursue paediatrics was critical for future success.
But as for Professor Reynolds' future, he hopes to devote even more time to his other passion - woodworking.
He expects his workshop, which he said his wife thinks is far too big, will get a lot more use now.
-with Kaylee Dorris
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