Dr Ginny Cornish retires from General Practice

On Friday 14th June, after 36 years of public service, with 33 of those as a GP in Sandwell, Dr Ginny Cornish retired from General Practice.

Dr Cornish started her medical career in the 1980’s, completing her initial training at the Middlesex Hospital in the West End before graduating from University College London in 1988, and completing her GP training in North London.

In 1991 Dr Cornish came to Regis Medical Centre (RMC) as a Locum GP and in her words ‘… I never left’; an offer to join the Partnership at RMC followed, and Dr Cornish became a GP Partner in 1992.

In 2010 Dr Cornish, along with our other GP Partners, became a founder Partner of Your Health Partnership (YHP), taking the lead role for Patient Engagement and Experience at YHP, ensuring that patient-centred, quality care has remained at the heart of everything that we do.

Ginny is well known for her calm consideration, warmth, care and compassion; qualities that have served her well, not only as a clinician, much loved and respected by patients and colleagues alike, but also in her role as a GP trainer – it is the contribution that Ginny has made to the training of new GPs and other healthcare professionals, of which she is most proud.

In 2018 Dr Cornish was appointed a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (FRCGP); an honour and a mark of achievement recognising her significant contribution to the health and welfare of the community; the science and practice of medicine and the aims of the RCGP.

Tom Finan, Head of Frontline Operations at YHP, joined Regis Medical Centre in 2013 and has worked closely with Ginny on patient engagement, he said:

“I have been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with Ginny over the last 11 years and have been struck by just how deeply she cares about the people around her, often to her own detriment.

Ginny has always run behind with her clinics. Always. Purely because she has time for people – she listens carefully, often saying very little, maybe giving an encouraging word or two, or asking a question to clarify a point, but she gives people the time that they need to tell their story. Patients and colleagues love this – often the waiting room would be quite full of people, but they were always happy to wait to see Dr Cornish; if a colleague needed help with something, they knew that Ginny would be happy to help.

On one very memorable occasion, I was stuck at RMC late into the evening because of a problem with the alarm system. Ginny was on extended hours and after her clinic finished at 8:00pm she insisted on staying with me, despite being at work since 08:00 that morning, so that I wasn’t in the building by myself. In fact, she only left at around 11:00pm, after organising for her husband to come and sit with me instead.’

Dr Cornish plans to make a clean break with General Practice to prioritise a healthy lifestyle; seeing extended family and friends; spending time at home and in her garden; supporting her local church in the running of their community café; practicing the church organ; upping her game in her jazz saxophone playing; going birdwatching and walking…for starters!

Dr Ginny Cornish

Let us leave the final word to Ginny:

‘I am really impressed by the excellent teamwork I see going on in YHP, and the committed and diverse teams working so hard in challenging circumstances to make things better for our patients. I am especially delighted to see young talent in leadership. Keep up the good work and continue to support each other! 

Thank you, Ginny. We wish you all the very best for your retirement