Judy Cowie at Fairfield Medical Centre, Hamilton
It was October 1984 when Judy Cowie first started work at Fairfield Medical Centre in Hamilton.
She and then fiancé Grant Cowie were not long back in Aotearoa New Zealand after three years’ living and working in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Judy, born in Huntly, went to Fairfield Primary, Fairfield Intermediate and Fairfield College so taking a job at Fairfield Medical Centre was like coming home.
She is still there on the front line in reception and administration seeing the great grandchildren of patients she welcomed into the practice 40 years ago.
So much has changed since then not only in the community and the practice but in Judy’s life too.
She initially started part time covering for another woman and then became full time in March 1985 – the same month she and Grant got married.
There was no time for a honeymoon.
Grant had a job as a professional tennis coach around the region. The couple who had met at college went on to have two sons – Adam, 33, and Logan, 29 and grandson Hunter, 11, a keen motocross rider.
While Judy and Grant live in Flagstaff, she still considers herself a “Fairfield girl”.
Things have changed at the practice.
“We were paper appointment books back then. The main change were doctors doing (baby) deliveries and house calls.”
There were four doctors – Michael Easther, Malcolm Porteous, Frank Cullen and Jim Primrose - four nurses and three on reception.
Today there are seven doctors, including Cullen who founded Pinnacle as a GP membership network and he went on to serve many years as Chair.
Today, like most practices, the telephone calls for same day appointments can be overwhelming.
“We’re not too bad here, you can normally get seen in the next couple of days,” says Judy although because patients are often loyal to their own doctor, there can be some pressure when their GP is away.
“Everybody’s ‘urgent’ is different.”
They have only stopped using masks inside the practice post Covid in the last two months.
Judy remembers the pressure Covid put on patients and the practice. They were fretful days, she recalls.
The Fairfield suburb is an international melting pot. In Judy’s time at the practice there has been a large intake of Somali refugees, South Africans, Pacific Islanders and Koreans as well as the existing long term European and Māori residents.
“It’s a bit of a mixture really. There are some people who have lived here 40-50 years.”
In the practice itself, there have also been changes although they are in the same building on Heaphy Terrace.
“We’ve been through three computer systems since I’ve been here,” says Judy and there is now less reliance on doctors’ handwriting.
The system now is Indici, a free secure online patient portal which allows patients to manage their health needs digitally by ordering repeat prescriptions, making an appointment and viewing test results.
“I’ve seen four generations come through here. There are about four or five, four-generation families that come in here that I know of.”
“That’s the cool thing about it.”
She and Grant have a big two acre garden at their home.
“I really enjoy gardening, I belong to a couple of garden groups and go on trips.”
She does scrapbooking, card making and travels to see her grandson competing in motocross.
When not at the races, they watch on Speedhive, the sport’s online platform.
Now 64, Judy says she is unlikely to celebrate 50 years at Fairfield Medical Centre, but retirement is not on the horizon, yet.
She works three days a week rather than full time and has amassed enough leave to be able to take some time off next year to travel.
“I’ll hang in there a bit more, I really like the company here. It doesn’t feel like 40 years because every day is different and the people in Fairfield are lovely,” says Judy.
"We have been extremely fortunate over many years to have a number of very dedicated, long-term employees.
Judy, having served the longest, has been the backbone of that group; providing all the little touches that contribute so much to making, what we like to call the Fairfield Family, function so much better.
Welcoming and kind, professional and helpful in her dealings with patients, always with a smile on her face, her knowledge of families and connections is invaluable.
Judy’s knowledge of and connections to former employees and their families, and her role as chronicler of events and happenings at Fairfield add so much to the extended Fairfield Family.
Forty years’ service to a busy medical centre is a lot of loyalty, commitment and hard work, and Judy has that in spades.
We are extremely grateful for that service, commitment and hard work and thank and congratulate Judy for this achievement. We wish her all the best for her remaining years at Fairfield and the future."