Set broken bones, prescribe purgatives, good sense of humour a plus.
A GP post at a practice in rural Whyalla has been filled 145 years after it was first advertised.
“A couple of months ago I was browsing in an antiques shop,” Dr James Hennessey told TMR, “when I stumbled across a newspaper first printed in 1877.
“There were all sorts of advertisements in there – ads for pig iron, coal scuttles and gas engines, there were ads for milk pans, leather saddles and artificial teeth.
“There was even one for an Allen Coil boiling apparatus, whatever that is. But being a GP I was drawn to an ad for a family physician.”
The advertisement asked for a fully qualified doctor with a cast iron stomach and prior experience working in the colonies.
“They also said they’d provide roomy lodgings and an annual salary of fifty pounds,” said Dr Hennessey. “I was sold on the idea and wrote off to them as soon as I got home.”
The practice manager told TMR: “We were delighted when Dr Hennessey’s expression of interest came in – it’s taken us 145 years to recruit a full-time GP but we finally got there!
“And let me tell you, a salary of fifty pounds a year, an Allen Coil boiling apparatus and a set of artificial teeth can get you a long way in Whyalla.”
