DR ALLAN KIRKPATRICK

Allan was born and raised in Newcastle and after completing high school at Cardiff started work at BHP as a Metallurgy Trainee. After several career changes he was accepted into Newcastle University’s Medical School and graduated in 1990. He completed his internship and residency years in the local hospitals and entered general practice in mid-1992. He was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in 1997. In 2014 he completed a Master’s Degree in Skin Cancer in order to provide an accessible and affordable service to local people suffering the effects of years of sun exposure.

Allan has always had a special interest in palliative care and served as a Visiting Medical Officer with the Calvary Mater Palliative Care Team for over 20 years. He resigned from this position in 2019 to allow him to focus on providing services at Lake Macquarie and Warners Bay Private Hospitals as well as the Aged Care Sector.

He is available for admissions and consultations at Lake Macquarie Private Hospital and Warners Bay Private Hospital for symptom control and end of life care. He is also very involved in the Aged Care sector servicing four Nursing Homes in the Lake Macquarie region. The reality is that residents of Aged care facilities are unfortunately approaching the end of their lives and deserve to be kept comfortable and to be able to make a seamless transition to end of life care when their time comes. He believes that people in aged care deserve to be able to end their lives in familiar surroundings with comfort and dignity.

Allan is passionate about providing good palliative care to patients, believing that he is not just treating a patient but treating the entire family. He believes that relieving the patient’s pain and other symptoms relieves distress from families during a period in their lives that is stressful enough!