Celebrations are in order for a Carman-based physician who is marking multiple milestones in his medical career.
In January 2024, Dr. Gerry Clayden is celebrating 25 years of service in the Carman community, where he is a senior partner in the Carman Medical Group.
This noteworthy achievement follows closely behind the 50th anniversary of when Clayden earned his medical degree in November 1973.
Clayden’s career aspirations initially took root two generations prior when his grandparents immigrated as Jewish refugees to England from Poland in the 1890s. They had high hopes for their children, including Clayden’s dad, who was born in England in 1914.
In 1938, Clayden’s dad became a doctor, paving a new pathway for the family.
“He was the first in the family not to push a barrow around a market,” he said. “He had high hopes for his three children too. I’m the youngest of three, and he wanted us all to become doctors.”
Clayden’s older brother and sister took other paths, so he was the only one to follow in their father’s footsteps — albeit reluctantly at first.
“I didn’t want to be a doctor at all. I dropped out of medical school for a year,” recalled the 74-year-old. “When I went back again, I was a very reluctant medical student.”
That perspective shifted after about two years of study when Clayden and his classmates worked with a surgical unit for three months.
“Suddenly, I thought this is fun. I like doing things with my hands and mending things. So from that moment on, I had a burning ambition to do surgery,” he said.
“I got my medical degree in November 1973. Then I studied like crazy to get my surgical diploma — and I got it first try in 1978.”
Living in a small town near Oxford, Clayden worked with the National Health System as a surgical trainee.
“Once I finished med school, I had no ambition to do anything but surgery,” he said.
“In the 1980s, there were four times as many surgeons trained than could be accommodated by the system in England, so a staff job in the National Health Service just never came my way.”
Once his stint as a surgical trainee ended, Clayden applied for family practice jobs to make ends meet.
“I worked for two years in family practice, but I knew I couldn’t do that exclusively and never go back into an operating room again,” he said.
“A good friend suggested that I look in the British Medical Journal to see if there was a job abroad that I could do. The very first time I looked, there was a job advertised in Flin Flon for a general practitioner surgeon.”
He responded to the ad and was sent a plane ticket to Manitoba. He spent a week in Flin Flon but wasn’t convinced he wanted to work there, so he returned to England and spent the next year looking for something better.
“Nothing came up, so I rented out my house, packed a few things into a suitcase and went to Flin Flon. I expected to be there for a year and earn enough money to pay off my debts,” he said.
“After a year, I actually liked it really well, and I was busy as all get-out in the operating room. A surgeon up there taught me how to do hysterectomies, Caesarean sections, take out tonsils and screw bones together. I doubled my repertoire in a year and there was endless work to do. I made lots of friends, and it was fun.”
While he was there, he also got his pilot’s licence and bought a small Mooney airplane so he could make quick weekend jaunts to Winnipeg for concerts and other cultural excursions.
Then in 1998, Clayden got a phone call asking if he’d consider relocating to Carman, where the community needed a surgeon.
“I drove down and had a look around and thought maybe I’ve been in the wilder-ness long enough after 11 years,” he said. “It was close enough to Winnipeg for me to be able to go to the theatre, concerts, bookshops and things I really like to do.”
After wrapping up his role in Flin Flon, Clayden began working in Carman in January 1999. He lived in the community for a short while before moving to St. Francois Xavier and then eventually to Winnipeg.
In 2007, Clayden was instrumental in launching a colonoscopy program in Carman. Since then, he’s done about 7,000 of the procedures, averaging 10 per day. Colonoscopies continue to make up about two-thirds of Clayden’s practice.
Over the years, Clayden has also been involved with training about 60 to 70 inter-national doctors within the Canadian medical system. One of those international doctors is gearing up to join the Carman Medical Group this summer.
When he reflects on his 50 years as a physician and 25 years practising in Carman, Clayden notes many changes over the decades.
“Things are so different from what they were. When I qualified in 1973, nobody had invented ultrasound. There was no CT scanning. There were no MRIs or PET scanners,” he said.
“Medicine is almost completely unrecognizable after 50 years. If you look at other technological advances, the labs don’t look anything like they did 50 years ago. Everything is digital now, so I can pull a patient’s X-ray up on the computer anywhere in the world.”
Looking ahead, Clayden is preparing to scale down his workload but he’s not ready to retire yet. Next year, the building lease for the medical practice will be up for renewal. At that time, Clayden will likely step back to become an associate rather than a partner in the practice. As an associate, Clayden expects he’ll continue working about two days per week.
With more time on his hands, he also hopes to travel more with his wife Sandy, particularly to see family in far-flung parts of the globe. Clayden’s daughter from a previous marriage lives in England, while Sandy has one son living in Norway and another in Vancouver. The couple visits their children and grandchildren whenev-er they have the chance.
Overall, Clayden’s five-decade career has been a fulfilling journey, both personally and professionally.
“The only downside is commuting to Carman on a snow day,” he said. “All in all, it’s a very satisfying job.”
