Book-ending your career

‘Book-ending your career’

Have you thought of what you should do as you approach the ‘retirement’ age? Perhaps you’ve considered simply downing tools and sitting at home doing the Times crossword? Bee keeping, wood turning, or other crafts maybe? Or have you promised yourself that big trip around the world on a famous liner for several months visiting friends and relatives? But what happens when it’s finished, or cut short due to a Norovirus outbreak?

Well, I wasn’t prepared to retire as I entered my 60th year on this planet. I enjoy clinical interaction too much. I have years of experience and like teaching, being hands-on, and the social aspect of coming to work early in the day and getting things done! We are lucky as anaesthetists - our job really makes a difference to so many people.

So, I have decided to ‘take up a gap year’ and am currently on a ‘working holiday’ in Queensland, Australia.

How? I’d already taken my NHS pension; as most of us at this age found - it’s simply not worth contributing to financially anymore. In fact, many of us have found it penalises us to do it. This gave me a significant degree of mental freedom; no longer was I working to make sure I was okay in my retirement. Part of the contractual arrangement we have with the NHS is the pension scheme, and I felt this contract was slowly disintegrating. This was made worse by the intransigent nature of my trust, which seemed very unkeen to allow me to reduce my hours and continue contributing to frontline work.

Three months after receiving my lump sum from my pension, a job advert circulated amongst my colleagues. “Have you seen how much they are paying anaesthetists down under?” This advert was actually from a small hospital near where I lived and worked in Queensland in the late 1990s. I had toyed with the idea of immigration to Australia after gaining CCT; but family, logistical, and other issues meant I didn’t stay there. I had a two-part UK career: 15 years at the Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham and 10 years in Dorset at Bournemouth and Poole Hospitals. The latter was filled with NHS medical managerial duties!

Serendipitously this job offer was from the same part of Queensland that I already knew. “I’ve got nothing to lose, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just come back”, I told my relatives and friends. “I also have two of my children living over there; they have Australian partners”.

In late 2024, I underwent a telephone interview and then accepted a post as a senior medical officer (in anaesthesia) at Brisbane’s Metro South Healthcare to work at a small peripheral hospital called Redlands. It is situated in an area known as the Bayside, one of Brisbane’s undiscovered suburbs with direct access to water sports on Morton Bay.

It’s rapidly developing into a community with many retired residents and young families, as property prices remain reasonable compared with the rest of South East Queensland.

Bureaucratic process

If you are thinking of doing a similar thing - be prepared - getting registered as a specialist anaesthetist in Australia is a long and taxing process. The pinnacle of which was logging onto a Zoom call with a notary based somewhere in Florida at 03:00 to confirm my identity, my qualifications, and that my paperwork was all in order. You also have to register with their college (ANZCA) and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA - similar to our GMC) before your temporary-working residency visa will come through. This will certainly take many months. The process for registering as a Specialist (ie consultant) International Medical Graduate (SIMG) is outlined on both the ANZCA and AHPRA websites but allows you to work as an anaesthetist only; your medical degree is recognised and registered via a separate process.

This was such a drawn-out system that I’d actually managed to work out three months' notice from the NHS, pack my house up, rent it and then embark on a journey to Australia before my registration came through. I hoped this registration process could ‘catch me up’ as I wanted to spend some time in New South Wales and Queensland with my children.

“Grandad” backpacking

In the interim; I spent about three months travelling through Queensland, bought a car and explored the massive state. I can recommend, if you ever consider this, to look at housesitting websites (such as www.happyhousesitters.com.au/ - but there are many similar sites). Here, people look for sensible in-house carers for their property and pets. If you don’t mind looking after some crazy, neurotic dogs, you can find some lovely places to stay for free! I had a week's holiday on Magnetic Island near Townsville; which was a beautiful tropical paradise. I also managed to land three months' house sitting in one of the leafy South Brisbane suburbs.

This enabled me to settle into Brisbane life before I got to receiving wages. An important point because rental costs can be high.

The job

Queensland is short of anaesthetists, for many reasons. One of them is that in private practice they earn on average more per hour than in the public sector. As much of Australia’s healthcare is private, patients who use it expect to pay gap fees. Have a look at this link and you will easily see how life in Australia can be different for anaesthesia.

The work

The hospital is a busy satellite unit but isn’t busy enough to warrant substantial anaesthetic residents. The department is staffed by 8FTE and on-call is quite frequent… covering primarily an obstetric unit. The four-theatre operating complex is short of space and no high acuity (A3 plus) patients are seen there, there is no intensive care backup. (Complex cases are transferred to other sites that have intensive care.)

It has been interesting to land in a unit where most of our work involves obstetrics, something I hadn’t done for many years. During my first three months (as supernumery and supervised part of my registration process) I took a refresher course in obstetric anaesthesia! I had forgotten how much easier it is to do regional anaesthesia on young women especially inserting epidurals; when compared with the elderly vascular patients I have spent many years looking after. Having a ‘not too busy’ clinical life is vital at my age, so I can concentrate on recounting ‘in my day’ stories!

Outside of theatre

My life has been completely reinvigorated by this move. I have taken on new sports such as pickleball, yoga and mountain trail riding. It is amazing to explore and learn about a great city like Brisbane which is hosting the Olympics in 2032 and there’s a real buzz about the place.

I am enjoying working in a new place, I’m being paid well, and the work is not too busy. So how long will this working retirement holiday last? Who knows?

I am well based to explore the Pacific countries along with all the amazing things to see in Australia. I have started cheering for the Queensland Reds Rugby and even now follow the State of Origin (Rugby League) series.

Surprises

• How much coffee people drink here?
• How hot it can get in the summer, but how beautiful the sunsets are
• The beautiful places so close to visit: beaches, bushland, islands and country
• How entitled some Australians are, and they expect a ‘good’ life!

Disappointments

• The extensive Australian slang has meant that occasionally I can’t understand the locals
• The 24-hour plane ride back to the UK
• Anaesthetists still are not recognised as an essential part of the workforce by some of our clinical colleagues (no change there, then)
• And finally - finding out that one of my kids (who lives in the UK) arranged his wedding right in the middle of the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia 2025... this means yet more jet travel

If you’re not ready for those slippers just yet - consider a working holiday as a pre-retirement activity. You won't be disappointed! And you will find you have much wisdom and skill to contribute.

John Ward
‘Retired’ Anaesthetist currently working in South East Queensland
Former Board Member & Honorary Treasurer, Association of Anaesthetists
Consultant at Bournemouth & Poole until 2024