For years, Dr Jaya Pathi was the only woman solo practitioner in the northern area
Dr Jaya Pathi, the longest serving GP in Adelaide northern metropolitan area, has completed 50 years of service in the field of medicine, making her among the longest serving doctors in the region.
Dr Pathi is also the only woman solo practitioner in the northern area for over four decades until she handed over the practice to another doctor. She continues to work there four days a week scaling down from a hard six-day a week schedule.
Jaya obtained her MBBS in 1967 from Osmania University in Hyderabad (India) and started working at the hospital there and at the same time specialising in paediatrics. She got her MD in 1970.
On arriving in SA with her husband in 1972 she joined a GP practice in Whyalla. “A year later I moved to Adelaide and started my practice at Elizabeth North. It continues to be my workplace,” she smiles. “Some of the babies I helped deliver are among my middle-aged patients now,” she adds.
In the 70s, the local Lyell McEwin Hospital’s after-hours emergency section was serviced by local private GPs working the Salisbury, Elizabeth areas as part of extending health care to the local community. “I had a seven-day week for three years,” says Dr Pathi, adding that she also used to assist local surgeons and other specialists at operating theatres.
Dr Pathi was honoured by Salisbury Elizabeth Medical Association when she completed 30 years of service, and by Northern Area Health Network in 2015 for providing continuous medical care to the northern community for more than 40 years. Ten years later, the good doctor continues to heal.
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