Tributes paid to doctor who was a ‘true friend of the community’

Tributes paid to doctor who was a ‘true friend of the community’

11 July 2018

THE death has taken place of a former doctor at the Downe Hospital.

Dr Charles Jack, who was a consultant physician at the hospital, died at the weekend after a short illness. He was in his early sixties.

Dr Jack left the Downe several years ago to take up a position at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine.

Former South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said she was saddened to learn of Dr Jack’s untimely passing.

“Dr Jack spent many years in the Downe Hospital specialising with the elderly,” she said. “Through his teamwork approach he developed the Medical Assessment Unit and always put the medical and health care needs of all his patients first.

“There is hardly a family in the Down area who have not been impacted in a positive way by the work, skills, patient approach and talents of Dr Jack.  

Miss Ritchie continued: “I had the opportunity to work with Dr Jack through the Down Community Health Committee.

“He worked tirelessly and tooth and nail for the new Downe Hospital and for the services to be contained in it. Dr Jack also campaigned for a stroke unit in the Downe Hospital.

Describing Dr Jack as a man of “immense skill, medical expertise, compassion and humanity, Miss Ritchie said he was a “true friend of the people, all patients and the community of Down and Mourne.”

She expressed her condolences to Dr Jack’s widow, Joan, a former staff nurse at the Downe Hospital, and his children.