Royal Lancaster Infirmary A&E doctor retires after 39 years

Dr Ray McGlone has been a doctor since 1980 and a consultant at the RLI since January 1, 1990, when he arrived as the youngest A&E consultant in the country and the first ever for the Lancaster hospital.

His daughter, Dr Marie Therese Lovis, said: “He turned up early and worked the New Year’s Eve shift much to the amazement of staff!

“Since then he has overseen the move from the old A&E to the newer purpose build one and it is now an eight consultant department.

“Over the years he has cared for thousands of patients of Lancaster and surrounding areas.” 
Dr Lovis recalled how this had included putting up an elderly relative of a patient in his own home when their husband was admitted after an accident on holiday.

“His professional and personal life has been peppered with such acts of kindness for staff and the public,” she said.

“He has opened his home on numerous occasions to provide accommodation to doctors to help recruit, at a time of great shortage nationally of A&E doctors.

“He used to spend Christmases that he wasn’t working in A&E volunteering for the Homeless Action Centre and can often be seen taking a homeless person out for a meal – where he will stop and eat and talk with them rather than walk on by.

“He would go into work to help when he saw that the waiting times had gone up or when staffing levels were low.”

“They didn’t see him wipe the tears as he visited my mother in the oncology ward having her palliative chemotherapy and then walked down the corridor back to work.

Dr Lovis is collating stories about her dad to create a retirement book. “One of my memories as a child is waking up in the middle of the night to find him in the porch, in an orange jumpsuit waiting for the flying squad to take him to an accident on the motorway to provide emergency assistance,” she said.

“One night he didn’t have to go so far when we were woken by a policeman to say that someone had driven into a nearby house – they knew where he lived so of course he rushed to help. My dad has always been someone who always goes above and beyond for patients. I’m sure there are many patients and relatives out there who may remember him.”

Email [email protected] to include your memories in the book.