Harry Hall’s life was shaped by an avid curiosity of how things work.
In his book, The Tales of Doctor Harry, Retired Rural Family Doctor, the long-time Orillia family doctor talks about his career of 57 years and a life filled with travel and exploration.
“It's a look back on medicine and how it has changed,” said the 84-year-old. “Everything has changed, except anatomy.”
Back in 1959, when he graduated from University of Toronto’s school of medicine, very little was known about what was going on in the brain, said Hall.
“But now they've got it totally mapped. In terms of physiology and biochemistry, we understand so much now than we did back then.”
As a young doctor, Hall moved first to Vancouver and then to Boston to practise internal medicine.
“Back in those days, you got paid $200 a month while in specialty training,” he said. “The rent in Boston was $130 and I had a child at that time, too. So things were a bit of a squeeze.”
That’s when a classmate of his who lived in Orillia sent him a Christmas card. Upon learning about Hall’s situation, his friend suggested a move to Orillia, so Hall could save up some money to continue his education in Boston.
So, Hall came to the Sunshine City in 1962, and stayed in practice at 16 O’Brien St., until 2016.
When he started his practice as a family doctor, things were very different.
“As a family doctor, you had to be on top of everything,” said Hall. “We had to know about everything, doesn't mean we have to be able to do everything. But if you see a patient who needs a specialist, you should be able to treat it and not send them to a specialist right away.”
Nowadays, he noted, it seems, everyone is sent to a specialist.
“When I came here there were virtually no specialists, no obstetricians or pediatrician, and only three surgeons,” said Hall. “So we (family doctors) did everything — pediatrics, internal medicine, and psychiatry — except for major surgeries.”
He says he loved doing it all, even the exceptionally long hours.
It isn’t only technology that changed over his almost six decades of work, it’s also the way the government has stepped in to control health care that has changed the medical scene.
“There wasn't any insurance when I first started,” he said. “You charged the patient and if they didn't have any money, you didn't charge them. That was sort of understood.”
Then insurance companies stepped in, leading, eventually, to the government taking it over.
“From there it went downhill and is still going downhill,” said Hall, adding he prefers to stay away from making statements on political decisions.
Although, he said, he would have appreciated if the government had asked the Ontario Medical Association for advice when making policies.
The one thing that has definitely changed in medicine is the patient-doctor interaction, noted Hall.
“Listening to the patients has changed tremendously,” said Hall. “A five- or 10-minute visit with the patient becomes very mechanical.”
In his lifetime of practising in Orillia, either in his private practice or at the hospital, patients really appreciate a physician who spends a little time talking to them, said Hall.
“From my point of view, they loved it,” said Hall. “They felt like they knew me now. I (also) learned so much from them.”
His learning didn’t stop with his patients.
“I had residents coming in from all over the world, from all backgrounds and all religions,” said Hall. “From my perspective, that was a great learning opportunity, because I got to talk to them and ask them questions.”
It was his patients and the nurses he worked with that kept suggesting he write a book.
He recalled one of the many stories he included in his book.
“I worked in emerg a lot and this guy turned up in there and he was all scraped up and comatose,” Hall explained. “We have some tricks up our sleeve to see how deep a state of comatose they're in, but we couldn't arouse him at all.
“We were standing there thinking about it and the nurse came in and said, there's another guy that just came in with the same condition,” Hall said. “And when she said his name, the patient in front of us jumped up and ran into the other room and started pounding the guy.”
The rural doctor didn’t just work in Canada, he also worked across the globe in places such as Australia and New Zealand.
In rural Canada, his practice reached up into the arctic.
“One thing I've learned in my life is that there is no race smarter than anybody else,” Hall said, talking about his time spent in Iqaluit and Nunavik. “A lot of people assume that people living in remote places are not up to our level. That's not true. They have their own sets of values. They believe in Mother Earth and I must say I do too.”
The most brilliant man he met came during his time in Australia.
“He was a native who grew up on a reserve,” said Hall. “He had a philosophical worldview and it so impressed me.”
The book also contains his musings on life’s philosophies.
“I ask some questions, which may be considered controversial,” said Hall. “I don't presume I have the answers.”
The book was launched at Manticore Books on Dec. 20.
“I envisioned sitting there for five hours all by myself, but there was a lineup out the door,” said Hall. “We sold 109 books that day."
Hall spends his retired life with his wife, Marian Hall, on his family property next to Lake Dalrymple. He spends as much time as he can outside, canoeing in summer and skiing in winter.
And now that he’s written his book, Hall said he keeps thinking of all the other stories he should have included in it.
So he’s been collecting more material for, possibly, a second book.
The book is available at Manticore Books, the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital gift store, and Tiffin's Creative Centre, online at Amazon or through the publisher, Friesen Press.
