‘I thought I had Buckley’s chance of being a GP’

Children often find it hard to believe Dr Paul Hanson when he tells them what he was like at their age.
 
The Launceston GP, who was recently awarded the 2023 RACGP Tasmania GP of the Year award, regularly helps local schools with their reading and mentoring programs.
 
‘There are some kids in grade two who can barely read,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘I say to them, “I was in the same boat as you when I was your age, and I became a doctor”.
                                        
‘Some of them look at me, and think, “Really?”.
 
‘But some of them actually do believe me, because they know who I am. They can tell I’m telling the truth. So it gives them a bit of confidence, a bit of hope that you just don’t give up.’
 
Dr Hanson’s very personal reason for helping these schoolchildren was shaped in the Tasmanian country town of Smithton where he grew up.
 
He remembers being keen on medicine from a young age.
 
‘My grandfather used to always call me “Dr Paul”, because if he had problems with some sort of injury, I would always be trying to help patch him up,’ he said.
 
However, he was also conscious of barriers in his way.
 
The first obstacle was easy to dismiss once he realised that you did not, in fact, have to go to England to become a doctor – a misunderstanding caused by all the English doctors working in the area at the time.
 
The other was more serious, illustrated by an experience at his end-of-grade-two exams, which remains fresh in his mind more than five decades on.

‘I can vividly remember everybody else in the room madly writing stuff down,’ he said.
 
‘And I looked at this piece of paper, and it didn’t make any sense to me at all. So basically, I failed miserably.
 
He presumed this meant any medical aspirations would come to nothing.
 
‘I said, “Well, I have got Buckley’s chance really. You have to be able to read and write”.’
 
‘The plan was for me to go to a special class because back in the bad old days they used to split the class.’
 
His mother had other ideas, however, coming into the school to ask if he could repeat the year – and pointing to his good performance in other subjects including maths.
 
Enter Charles Saville, his primary school principal, who took him aside for extra reading tuition to help him catch up.
 
‘He was like a role model to me and the fact that he had faith in me, that [he thought] I was okay, that I was going to get there – it’s really important, I think, for young kids to hear that,’ Dr Hanson said.

Paul Hanson’s dyslexia meant he didn’t learn to read until grade three. (Image: Supplied) 

Gradually he rebuilt the self-esteem shaken by the laughter he would hear when he read aloud in class, and progressed into high school where his excellent maths meant medical school was no longer such a distant possibility.
 
There was no English-language requirement for the University of Tasmania at the time – a situation that has since changed – which turned his hopes into reality and allowed him to embark on his studies.
 
It was not entirely smooth sailing. Aside from feeling like an outsider, Dr Hanson recalls writing one 3000-word assignment on the evolution of the human brain, which evolved into a treatise on the evolution of the human Brian.
 
‘Luckily, I gave it to my mum too, [and asked] “Could you just proofread this?”, he said.
 
‘And she asked, “Why did you do a whole thing about Brian?”.’
 
He laughs at the memory and acknowledges he ‘absolutely’ used his sense of humour as a way of coping with dyslexia.  
 
‘As time went by, I became less and less embarrassed about it. [People] just took it that I couldn’t spell very well,’ he said.
 
‘Luckily, being a doctor, you can write rather badly.’
 
Once he graduated, Dr Hanson made the move into rural general practice, working first in the country town of Scottsdale before moving to Newstead Medical, his current clinic in Launceston.
 
Now a life member of the RACGP, and with many years as an examiner under his belt, he is convinced that his learning challenges in early life have shaped him into a better doctor.
 
‘You have a lot more empathy for people who are struggling,’ he said. ‘You get exactly where they’re coming from, you don’t judge people.
 
‘It’s like anybody who’s been through difficulties, you learn from those difficulties.
 
‘I think having a fairly significant disability for my whole life – it’s now called dyslexia but back in the bad old days I had never heard of that word – I think it does develop your character.
 
‘You become less judgmental as a person by the fact that you have been through some tough times.’
 
During more than 35 years as a GP, Dr Hanson has seen the technology at his disposal advance dramatically, and has been using dictation transcribing software to help him do the work he loves for more than a decade.
 
‘I am so blessed to be a GP,’ he said.
 
‘I know it’s not sexy at the moment to be a GP but it’s a rewarding career.
 
‘The biggest buzz is the communication, the relationship you have with your patients.
 
‘That’s just so special.’
 
Now the prospect of giving others more of a chance to play a fulfilling role in their own lives spurs him to help students struggling with their reading the way he used to.
 
He prefers, in fact, to talk about his story of overcoming dyslexia more than he does about the 2023 RACGP Tasmania GP of the Year award – although he does concede he is ‘really chuffed’ for that recognition from his colleagues.
 
Perhaps Dr Hanson would not have made it there without the help of his old principal all those years ago. Certainly, his respect for people capable of making such positive interventions is palpable.
 
‘That changes someone’s life,’ he said. ‘It changed my life, I’m living proof.
 
‘I went from one direction completely 180 degrees to another direction.
 
‘I was very fortunate.’
 
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