NHS consultant retires at 86 after 60-year career

An award-winning consultant who has worked for the NHS since 1965 has retired at the age of 86.

Dr Bijoy Mondal moved to the UK from Bangladesh in his mid-20s, spending 10 years in South Wales before moving to Rotherham as the town's only specialist geriatric doctor.

Ahead of his last day at Rotherham Hospital on 30 July, he said: "I love this place, I love these people and they are so helpful, so generous and so good. I'm very fortunate."

He said he was not "mentally ready or physically ready" to retire at the state pension age of 65 and was then given the chance to develop a pilot around community care which he could not pass up.

"I gradually developed the whole clinic, I developed the visits and all these things, and I believe at the end, they saved a lot of money not to send patients to hospital," Dr Mondal said.

He won the NHS 75 Award for outstanding contribution to the health service in 2023 for his efforts.

His work in the area started even before Rotherham Hospital was built in 1978, as he delivered care across six sites and managed around 300 beds for a number of years.

He said professors and colleagues had told him he would not like it and suggested he go somewhere else, but he said "no, I have to go there, it is one of those things".

"I like the challenge, and it was challenging but I enjoyed every moment of it," he said.

Dr Mondal said his "proudest moment" was not related to his career, but the birth of his daughter – although he sadly missed the moment of her delivery due to the job's demands.

"She was born during my ward round," he said. "You can't believe it."

He said the NHS had gotten "worse for the last couple of years" but he was "hoping the future will be good".

"It's gone down and now there's no other way. It will go up," he said.

"Once you fix the social care, I think it definitely is going to improve."

Dr Mondal said social care should also be free at the point of access, and this would reduce the sometimes fragmented nature of healthcare delivery, particularly for elderly people.

But he said the majority of the changes to the NHS in his lifetime had been positive as when he started there were no CT or MRI scanners, and fewer medications.

"I think doctors today have to know more than we did in those days, I think they have to work very, very hard," he said.

"I had to develop the stroke services without anything...now we have got all these gadgets.

"I am looking forward that I'm getting old in a very nice time."

As for why he chose to stay in the UK rather than taking work in the USA or Canada, Dr Mondal said it was because "everybody is treated equally" in the NHS.

"I am from part of Asia where you have to pay, on that it depends how long you live, and I don't believe in that," he said.

"I thought it's a wonderful system, the National Health Service, and I fell in love with it."

He said he would be "very busy in his own way" in retirement and will still be involved with the Royal College of Physicians, while spending more time with his family.

"My daughter says you can look after my baby, and my wife says you can do some housework, and I feel like, well, I like gardening," he said.

Dr Rod Kersch, consultant community physician at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, said Dr Mondal's work was "ahead of his time".

"His role as a community physician, which he started 20 years ago, is now a way of working which is a key part of the NHS 10-year plan and integrated neighbourhood teams," he said.

"Rotherham has benefited tremendously from his wisdom, vision and guidance on how to care for our residents."

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