Mr Pinto OBE [left] with Mr Patrick McGowan MBE, JP, Probus PresidentMr Pinto provided members with an enthralling talk on his background in medicine and his time as a Consultant Surgeon in Tyrone County Hospital. A native of Goa he studied medicine in London and at Cambridge and upon graduation embarked on a career in academia. Having set up a post-graduate course for surgeons in Uganda he returned to Britain to do pioneer work for the Medical Research Council on transplant surgery and CAT scans – both at an early stage of development. After eight years in this role he felt drawn back to “hands-on” surgery and applied for the first hospital post advertised. It was in a place he had never heard of, in country he had never visited – Omagh, Northern Ireland. Encouraged by a colleague in Queen’s University, Belfast, he applied for the post of Consultant Surgeon in Tyrone County Hospital and [as they say] the rest is history. Mr Pinto then charted the development of medical services in TCH from the time of his arrival until its closure in 2017. During that time A & E services were up-graded, new specialisms introduced, new wards added, new theatres constructed, a new sterilisation suite commissioned, new staffing structures introduced and post-graduate centre erected. While he regretted the closure of Tyrone County Hospital he was positive about the new hospital and its focus on day procedure surgery . It had, he noted, already acquired a reputation for the sort of clinical excellence that had been the hallmark of Tyrone County Hospital.
