AROUND TOWN MEETS


Outside of his studies he played rugby with other Sheffield medics. One Saturday afternoon in December, their match against Birmingham Old Boys was called off due to the snow.


So what could 15 rugby lads do now?


They went drinking, of course, spending seven hours in the Hallamshire doctors’ mess.


Janet and Steve Burns with family at their 30th Wedding Anniversary dinner


“I said why would I want to do that? There were no previous doctors in my family but I had always enjoyed my science studies. He said because there’s zero chance of unemployment, it would be a job for life, and the money is good so I thought why not,” Steve says.


Like most mothers, Steve’s mum wanted her boy to stay close to home and study at Newcastle University but Steve had other ideas.


“I wanted to move away, far enough so that my parents didn’t expect me to come home every weekend but close enough so that I could if I wanted to. I looked at the next big county – Yorkshire.


“Leeds and Sheffield were two big student cities but Sheffield had two football teams so that city won.”


Steve moved to Sheffield aged 17 and has remained in South Yorkshire ever since.


During his initial five-year Bachelor degree at Sheffield Medical School, Steve built up a great reputation as a student doctor and was lucky to be one of the last cohorts of students to train at the city’s Royal Infirmary and Royal Hospital.


“I never liked the idea of working in a high-rise hospital and was grateful that I’d graduated just before the Hallamshire opened in the late 70s. I enjoyed the breath of fresh air we could take between visits at the Royals - I hated


being cooped up.”


It was from this that Steve knew he wanted to work out in the community as a General Practitioner.


Next came four years post- graduate training to achieve his qualification as a GP where he worked in hospitals and surgeries across South Yorkshire. Here, he met his wife Janet who was a sister at Barnsley Hospital.


“I stepped onto the ward for my very first shift and was greeted by a senior sister. She said to me, ‘are you married?’ No. ‘Are you courting?’ No. ‘Then you should take Sister Janet out.’”


He finally plucked up the courage to ask her out one social staff gathering over a pint. The couple married six months later and went on to have three children.


In 1982 aged 26, Steve qualified as a GP and quickly gained his first job – a hoppy feat.


“My friend Ted Daly played with us and he was asking what my plans were now I’d finished my training. I mentioned I wanted to get into a GP surgery. I thought he went to the toilet but he came back and said his father would interview me on Wednesday.”


Ted’s dad Frank was a partner at Stag Medical Centre and offered Steve the job straight away. He became the youngest GP in Rotherham at the time, going on to become a partner after six months.


If the game hadn’t been called off and he didn’t like a pint, who knows which way his life would have panned out.


“This was a time before mobiles so if I was out, I’d have to search for a phone box or use patients’ house phones to ring home and check if anyone had called needing an urgent visit. ”


Steve started his career in the golden age of general practice. It was back to the days when all the doctors in the area were like a big team. They studied together, had hobbies together, their children played together and they all learned from one another.


With a high ratio of patients to doctors in Rotherham, it helped that they weren’t in competition with each other.


Fancy dress for a Round Table 60s party


“It was a lovely atmosphere


Club Doctor at Rotherham United for 25 years


back then. I could do my morning visits in the community, go home for lunch to see the kids or visit patients in hospital, and be back for the afternoon surgery.”


Patients became familiar and friendly, calling him Steve rather than Dr Burns. Children who came with sulky faces would leave in glee armed with a ‘brave for the doctor’ sticker. He’d never tire of seeing his patients, even if just to chat to the lady who lived round the corner and see how her acute ailment was getting on. Every once in a while he’d even retrieve his stethoscope from the boot of his car to examine a friend. The doctor coat never came off.


Today, doctors and nurses are swimming in a bottomless pile of paperwork, tackling unsociably long shifts with the mounting pressure of NHS destruction and patient complaints.


However, for Steve, he found complete job satisfaction during his long serving career, relishing in the simplicity of conversation and patient interaction.


While he was on call, patients would phone his landline and Janet would take calls for him. Most knew she was a nurse so they’d ask for her advice if Steve wasn’t in.


“This was a time before mobiles so if I was out, I’d have to search for a phone box or use patients’ house phones to ring home and check if anyone had


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