The Hare family: running the Mont Albert Medical Centre
For more than 70 years one family has been looking after the health needs of people living around Mont Albert — but their influence has reached far wider than that.
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A Mont Albert family has been looking after the health of the community for more than 70 years.
A love of healthcare, the 3127 postcode and family runs strong in the Hare bloodline.
Three generations of the family have looked after generations of the same families at Mont Albert Medical Centre, with six members having been doctors at the clinic.
Dr Jim Hare celebrated his 40th anniversary treating patients at the centre last week, where he lived for the first six years of his life.
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His daughter Dr Katie Weatherhead was by his side to celebrate, where she has been for almost nine years.
Dr Hare was also joined at the clinic in recent years by another of his daughters, who worked under him for six months, and her husband, who treated patients at the clinic for five years.
And Dr Hare’s brother Prof David Hare is just a stone’s throw away, working next-door as a cardiologist.
But Mont Albert isn’t the only suburb where the Hares have been treating patients.
Dr Hare has just finished 40 years working as an anaesthetist at Box Hill Hospital, and working in obstetrics at Box Hill Hospital, Mitcham Hospital and St George’s Hospital in Kew.
He estimates he’s delivered about 5000 babies in the area. In one week alone he was called in to deliver 18 babies at St George’s.
The father of five and grandfather of 10 has treated people spanning five generations in one family. “I’ve delivered from girls who I delivered from their mothers,” he said.
But he can’t come close to estimating the number of people he’s cared for, with Mont Albert Medical Centre having had more than 30,000 patients on its books at times.
Dr Hare has always been close to the clinic.
His parents Lin and Alice — both doctors — bought the centre in 1945 and lived in it, treating patients in the front rooms.
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They only moved the centre to where it is now — two doors up the road — when they needed more space for their five children.
After his father died, Dr Hare worked at the centre alongside his mother until she retired.
All these years later he still doesn’t live far away — only five streets from the clinic.
His wife, a speech therapist, owns the building together with the wives of three of the clinic’s other doctors.
Much of Dr Hare’s family are involved with healthcare, and a big family it is.
This weekend Dr Hare will host what he calls ‘Hare Extensions’ — an annual get-together of his five children, 10 grandchildren, four siblings and their families — 101 people in total.
Most of them live near him in postcode 3127, close to the other families Dr Hare has made through his work.
He’s stayed working in the same place for more than just the history, convenience and his love of the area.
“I enjoy my work, and I enjoy my patients. Patients become like your friends and, sort of, your families.”