Meet a member – Aleta and Bryan Slattery

The Slattery story begins early in their careers in Dalby, a small, rural town just west of Toowoomba. Bonded during his studies, Bryan was sent out to do relieving circuits, with Aleta not far behind, soon arriving on a family medicine program.

Small towns can be many things, but primarily they are places that celebrate and foster community. Naturally, the two quickly met and fell in love in the country, getting a true taste of life in the regions.

Their time in Dalby was short but sweet. Married in February during their third year in town, the newlyweds moved back to Brisbane after Bryan completed his bond to continue pursuing their medical careers.

“Working in Dalby is where we realised we wanted to be in the country. I'd worked with a guy called John Bechtel and he was a huge inspiration to me,” Bryan said.

“We came back to Brisbane and there were no rural training programs in those days, so I managed to get my diploma of obstetrics at the Royal and did some anaesthetics at the PA, and Aleta went back to doing paediatrics at the Mater.

“Aleta then found an advertisement for Warwick in the paper, and we applied, were fortunate enough to get jobs, and came out with a three-year plan. But 35 years later, we're still here.”

During their early days in Warwick, Bryan worked as medical super at the hospital and Aleta worked in general practice. While they weren’t yet working together professionally, they always operated in unison.

“We always worked as a team. Like if Bryan would have an afternoon shift, I’d often get the kids, or if I was working Saturdays, he would do the sport with kids,” Aleta said.

After six years, the two leaped at the opportunity to own a practice and began serving their community as a GP duo alongside Drs Louise and Lynton Hudson.

The practice quickly expanded, merging with a few other local practices, and in 2000, Aleta and Bryan became among the founding members of the Condamine Medical Centre, now one of the largest practices west of the divide.

“We seem to work well together. We sort of use each other as a sounding board. Aleta was always my inspiration for women's health and paediatrics, and I suppose I helped her with some other things in geriatrics,” Bryan said.

“We never thought we'd be here 35 years later. We got good support from those older doctors who had probably been here for 30 years or more. A bit like us now, just starting to retire, but they were very supportive of us,” Aleta said.

“We didn't see each other a lot during the day down there, because everyone's busy, but if I didn't know something, I'd always go and ask Bryan.”

In 2023, the pair celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary and retired after years of service to community health.

Spending majority of their careers working together in Warwick, Aleta and Bryan see the town as a village – small enough to know everyone, but big enough to develop a true sense of community. 

“There's good things and bad things. There's always that little difficulty with friends also being patients, but you earn your respect,” Bryan said.

“When we first started, there were no helicopter transfers, so it was a lot of transfers in the back of ambulances to Toowoomba, or even to Brisbane. There were also no mobile phones, so I used to have a pager when I was on call which was challenging.

“It's only been the last couple of years that we've not done on-call, but a major requirement of country medicine is doing your on-call yourself. And that wasn't always easy with family life.”

Aleta and Bryan are no strangers to the challenges of rural healthcare but have found endless satisfaction and joy in serving their own community.

“We have enjoyed living and working in Warwick, it's a good community. It takes hours to do the shopping at Woolworths because you see everyone, but that’s actually quite nice,” Aleta said.

“Someone just messaged me the other day and said – Bryan delivered our son in 1994 and I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciated that.”

“I think both of us would feel that one of the best things we've been able to do in a country practice is our ability to look after people that are dying. We both put a lot of effort into that,” Bryan said.

“Being prepared to give palliative care, to keep people at home as long as they can – It’s not easy, but it's people that you've looked after for 20 years and then been able to help them through the last stages. That's been one of the things that we're most proud of.”

Aleta and Bryan have been members of AMA Queensland for just over 40 years, and we wish them all the best for their retirement.