Highly respected doctor retires from county practice and vows to bring care to land of his birth

Oct 22 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A POPULAR Livingston GP has hung his stethoscope up for the last time following his retirement from Deans and Eliburn medical practice after 28 years service.

Dr Abdul Jabbar Chaudhury, known as Dulal, was the principal GP at the practice, based at Carmondean Health Centre.

But now having reached the age of 65, Dr Chaudhury has retired although he says he will still be running a dermatology clinic at the practice.

Dr Chaudhury came to the United Kingdom from Bangladesh in 1972 where he worked in a Liverpool hospital while his wife Bilkis completed a PhD in Chemistry.

He then worked in Glasgow as a registrar at the Gartnavel General Hospital for four years before enrolling at Manchester University to do his GP training.

It was in 1981 that Dr Chaudhury first arrived in West Lothian to work at the practice where he finally settled.

He never gave up on learning though and achieved numerous post-graduate qualifications including a diploma in Dermatology.

Dr Chaudhury is also a life member of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Despite all the hours the work of his practice took up he still found spare time to become a Justice of the Peace in Edinburgh.

Speaking to the Courier this week Dr Chaudhury paid tribute to all the patients and friends he had made in the county during his time here.

And he thanked his family, wife Bilkis and daughters Shahzya and Lameya, for all their support.

Dr Chaudhury said: “I will really miss my patients and I tried my best to help the people in the community.

“I have seen a couple of generations grow up and it will be sad to go.

“Retirement is the next chapter in my life but I’ll still come back to see everyone at my clinic as I love the place so much.

“I really need to thank my patients as well as my parents, wife and my children who gave me the time to do this work.

“Now I am thinking about doing some voluntary work in West Lothian and getting more involved with a diabetic hospital in Bangladesh.”

Dr Chaudhury has never forgotten his roots in Bangladesh and continues to support medical institutions in his homeland.

As well as lecturing at medical conferences and universities Dr Chaudhury is the honorary advisor in the UK for the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Now he is retired the GP plans to devote more time to helping achieve his father’s dream of providing health care in the area where they lived.

He recently donated land he owns in Chouddagram, Comilla to be used to establish a diabetic and eye care hospital in memory of his parents Abdus Sattar Chaudhury and Jahera Khatun Chaudhury.

Dr Chaudhury: “It was my father’s dream to establish medical care in that area and that is why I donated my land to the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh.

“We started a clinic in 2000 and appointed a doctor to attend the clinic twice a week.

“The building is not yet erected but the clinic is running from the family home at present and many rural people have benefited from this clinic.

“I think a dream is a kind of infectious disease and it is my dream now.”