Rodney Stevens

The Lower Clarence lost a “master of medicine” who dedicated 39 years to the health and wellbeing of the local community when Dr Anil Thakur passed away last month.

After moving to Australia in 1972 from India, Dr Thakur worked in Tasmania, Newcastle, Gosford, Alice Springs and the Rylstone / Kandos area in NSW.

Dr Thakur also went to the UK for seven years where he worked in various surgical specialties before obtaining Fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Dr Thakur married his late wife Usha in 1973, and the couple had two children, Raoul in 1975 and Siobhan, who was born while they were in the UK in 1978.

Dr Thakur was appointed as a surgeon at Maclean District Hospital in 1985.

He and his wife started the Clarence Medical Centre practice down in Centenary Drive when they came to the Clarence Valley in 1985.

After starting with a single surgery, Clarence Medical Centre quickly expanded to two, then four rooms by 1987. 

While at Maclean District Hospital Dr Thakur performed general surgery, trauma, colonoscopy, gastroscopy, some orthopaedics, urology, hand surgery and skin cancer treatments.

In the late 1980’s, Usha was tragically killed in a crash on the Pacific Highway.

After 33-years working as a surgeon at Maclean Hospital, Dr Thakur was possibly the longest serving doctor the hospital has seen.

“The Maclean District Hospital meant a lot to him, the staff, the theatre and the patients, so he tried to keep that running for as long as he could to provide services to the area.” Ms Dunn said.

Dr Thakur spent up until five-years-ago working at the hospital when he withdrew from hospital work at age 70 but continued to see patients in his general practice.

His passion for medicine and dedication to the community saw Dr Thakur continue to expand medical services in the Lower Clarence, establishing the Clarence Skin Clinic in 2005, where they diagnosed about 30 to 40 melanomas each year.

He also provided space at “1 Wharf Street Offices” for varying specialists to come to Maclean to see patients rather than having patients travel. 

Then in 2009 he opened the first cosmetic clinic in the Lower Clarence, the Clarence Cosmetic Clinic.

Educating and training the next generation of doctors and surgeons was a passion of Dr Thakur’s with countless people benefitting from his wealth of knowledge.

He had a lot of knowledge that he tried to pass on to a lot of medical students and a lot of doctors here in town, especially those who worked at the practice.

He was also senior lecturer for Wollongong University and ran regular training sessions through Grafton District Hospital.

“Dr Thakur was a man that just went that extra mile, he was a wonderful doctor and surgeon and an excellent diagnostician,” his partner Jo said.

“He was always very thorough and very professional, he believed as a doctor you didn’t just do what you needed to do for a patient and say goodbye, you needed to go that one step further and that’s why he was such a good doctor.”

In 2018, Dr Thakur was awarded the prestigious Rural Medical Service Award by the NSW Rural Doctors Network for 35 years of service in rural NSW.

Dr Thakur, aged 75, had been unwell for the past few years before he passed but still worked till then.

Anil loved animals, his garden and travel and got great joy from spending time with his family, especially his beautiful grandchildren.

Since word of his passing quickly spread around the valley, Jo said the incredible outpouring of love and gratitude from the community was a reflection on the wonderful man and doctor he was.

“It’s been absolutely astounding,” she said.

“Cards and flowers just keep arriving, all with the same messages of thank you doctor.

“They put a commemorative book at the practice because so many people just had nowhere to express how they felt.

“He was so well respected, and he helped so many people and so many families, the gratitude from the community just keeps coming.”

The memory of Dr Thakur will live on with his soul mate and partner Jo, his son Raoul and daughter-in-law Irene, daughter Siobhan and son-in-law Ashley, his grandchildren Alex and Usha, his family, friends and the Lower Clarence community.

As were his wishes, Dr Thakur’s life was celebrated at a private ceremony in January.