BY HEIDI
ULRICHSEN
At the age of 76, Dr. Ricardo de la Riva has no intention of
retiring any time soon.
The well-known Sudbury family doctor suffers from the chronic
aches and pains typical of people his age. He had a heart
attack seven years ago and underwent bypass surgery.
But he still works half-days at his Flour Mill area
practice. What keeps him going? The love he has for his
patients.
"When you enjoy something in life, you don't get tired as much.
It's a beautiful profession to be a doctor. Beautiful.
You can help people."
Perhaps in the future more doctors will continue working
into their golden years.
According to Statistics Canada, baby boomers are healthy and expected to work longer than previous generations.
Canadian doctors are already getting older. In 2001, the
proportion of general practitioners over the age of 55 was 21.4
percent, up from 18 percent in 1991.
De la Riva has noticed a few more grey hairs among his
colleagues lately. Most doctors who attend Sudbury &
District Medical Society meetings are in their 40s and 50s, not
their 30s, he says.
As a child growing up in Spain, de la Riva dreamed of
becoming a doctor like his father and uncle. He graduated from
medical school in 1954 and came to Canada a few years later.
He met his future wife while working at the Ottawa General
Hospital. She was a nurse. They married in 1960, and came to
Sudbury in 1963. The couple raised five children here.
A passionate advocate for the Flour Mill area, de la Riva
served on city council from 1972 to 2000. He ran for the first
time after noticing his neighbourhood was neglected by the
city.
He was forced to give up municipal politics after his heart
attack, but couldn't bear to stop practising medicine. He's
been treating most of his patients for years, and knows the
intricacies of their illnesses.
They appreciate that he takes care of them even though he's
getting old and sick himself.
"I think I have a better rapport with my patients because
they know I am sick. They say 'Oh, he sacrifices for me and he
wants to see me'."
De la Riva's colleague, Dr. John Jones, 82, says he'll only
hang up his stethoscope if his health deteriorates.
He became extremely bored after shutting down his private
practice in 1999, and started working half days at a local
walk-in clinic.
"I didn't last long (with retirement)," he says. "I don't
play golf and I don't go fishing. Just to suddenly do nothing
and to have nothing to think about, it rotted my mind. I had to
find something to do, so I went to the clinic."
Jones thinks it's natural for doctors to keep working as
long as they're reasonably healthy and happy.
"If everybody starts retiring when they're around 60, it
will be a disaster. I don't think many doctors want to, because
they can still earn money without being a menace to society."
Jones was born in Wales, and graduated from medical school
in 1947. He immigrated to Canada in 1953, and came to work at
the Copper Cliff Hospital. He opened his own medical practice
in Copper Cliff after the facility closed.
His future wife, Gina, worked as a nurse at the hospital.
They were married in 1959, and had one son.
Gina, 83, likes the fact that her husband still works. It keeps him happy and out of the house, she says.