After nearly six decades in pathology, long-serving collector at NSW Health Pathology’s Narrabri laboratory Ian Schweitzer is retiring.

Ian has spent the past two years as a col­lec­tor with NSW Health Pathol­o­gy in Narrabri, but his career stretch­es back to 1967, when he began as the first full-time pathol­o­gy staff mem­ber at Moree Hos­pi­tal before mov­ing to the lab­o­ra­to­ry at Narrabri in the 1990s.

Work­ing in the two-room lab­o­ra­to­ry behind the local morgue, Ian built his career from the ground up after com­plet­ing six years of train­ing while work­ing full time to qual­i­fy as a med­ical lab­o­ra­to­ry technician.

Ian says the most reward­ing part of his career has always been the con­nec­tions and inter­ac­tions with patients.

“Some of them I’ve known for many years. I always try to treat patients the way I would wish to be treat­ed,” he said.

Ian’s jour­ney into pathol­o­gy began with an ambi­tion to become a vet­eri­nar­i­an. He ini­tial­ly trained as a lab­o­ra­to­ry tech­ni­cian in Queens­land, work­ing with ani­mals before tran­si­tion­ing into human pathology.

Over his career, Ian has wit­nessed huge advance­ments in technology.

“The biggest changes have been in instru­men­ta­tion,” he explains.

“In the ear­ly days, we made reagents from scratch and per­formed every­thing man­u­al­ly, from blood counts to bio­chem­istry tests.

“Today, automa­tion and bar­cod­ing have trans­formed the way we work.”

Despite these advances, Ian says the impor­tance of hav­ing skilled, knowl­edge­able staff in the lab­o­ra­to­ry has always stayed the same.

Ian says the unique chal­lenges of rur­al health­care have also shaped his career in pathology.

From respond­ing to urgent after-hours calls to col­lect­ing hun­dreds of sam­ples in a sin­gle day, he has played a vital role in sup­port­ing his com­mu­ni­ty through both rou­tine care and crit­i­cal situations.

“Tireless service and excellent scones”

His col­leagues at the Narrabri lab­o­ra­to­ry say Ian will leave a last­ing legacy.

“Team Pathol­o­gy Narrabri will miss Ian. We admire him for his ded­i­ca­tion to pathol­o­gy and exem­plary work eth­ic. We look for­ward catch­ing up with him when he drops by with his award-win­ning scones!”

Michelle Wikin­son, Health Ser­vices Man­ag­er at Narrabri Dis­trict Health Ser­vice, also paid trib­ute to Ian’s con­tri­bu­tion to local health­care ser­vices and staff wellbeing.

“Narrabri Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal would like to thank him for his tire­less ser­vice, excel­lent scones, super veg­ies and beau­ti­ful chrysan­the­mums on Mother’s Day,” she said.

“We hope that Ian enjoys his sec­ond go at retirement!”

For those con­sid­er­ing a career in pathol­o­gy, Ian’s advice is sim­ple: start at the begin­ning and learn from expe­ri­enced colleagues.

“Expe­ri­ence mat­ters. And above all, always treat patients with care and respect.”

In retire­ment, Ian is look­ing for­ward to spend­ing more time gar­den­ing, bak­ing his award-win­ning scones, vol­un­teer­ing at the local Men’s Shed, and enjoy­ing time with his fam­i­ly and beloved dog, Daisy.

Ian, you’ve been a val­ued col­league and friend. We wish you all the best for a long and hap­py retirement!

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