Meet Dr Morris

Meet Dr John Morris, Orthopaedic Surgeon and LexiMed Consultant.

We'd like to introduce you to one of our LexiMed medical consultants, Dr John Morris, who kindly obliged us with a bit of his valuable time and offered some wonderful insights into his life.  We value John's dedication to delivering expert opinion services to our clients as well as his candour in this interview.

Dr Morris, how do you enjoy spending your leisure time?

My home is at Noosa, so when I'm there, I'm very fortunate to be able to indulge in some of my favourite pastimes.

I think it's important to keep fit so I try to go for long walks in the National Park each day, up to eight kilometres . And I'm a regular at the Wednesday twilight sailing at Manly.

I'm also really interested in food and wine. Sourcing good food to cook can take up a big part of the day since there are three fish shops in Noosa. I go to all of them and buy different seafood from each – oysters from one, mussels from another and I get fresh fish from the third.

I enjoy cooking but unfortunately I don't get much of a look in because my wife, who's an operating theatre nurse, is a real 'terror' in the kitchen.

I also enjoy wide aspects of wine, often leaning toward a good Burgundy. I have an interest in Summit Estate Winery in the Granite Belt and I even get involved in picking the grapes and obviously tasting the finished product! This year's Harvest Dinner was a raging success. The Granite Belt is really producing some exceptional vintages.

Perhaps my greatest passion is classical music, particularly opera and during the year I go to about twelve performances of high definition opera from The Metropolitan Opera Company in New York – these show at selected cinemas in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

And each year I try to go to two or three live performances in New York – we've already got two events booked a couple of months ahead, plus another one at Covent Garden in London.

You obviously travel a lot – what are your favourite places?

I'd probably pick Europe, especially France because I love the countryside and of course the great food and wine experiences there.

My son is in marketing at GE in New York and we visit him every year.

My daughter and her family live in Sydney so we're often popping down there for a visit with the grandchildren.

My wife, Heidi, has always wanted to visit the Taj Mahal and she's having a 'special' birthday this year so we've decided to go to India. No, I don't think I'd be very popular at home if I told you which birthday it is.

What do you think is your greatest achievement so far?

It's difficult to pick just one thing. I'd have to say it's probably balancing a really busy practice with family and lifestyle.

Once I made the decision to retire from operating, then that was a big weight lifted from my shoulders and it allowed me so much more time for all the other things I love doing.

When I first became a granddad that was pretty big too!

What do you enjoy about doing medicolegal reports?

I enjoy the challenge, because it taps into all my professional experience yet I have to stay totally objective and make sure I give an unbiased report that is balanced between the client, say the insurance company, and the worker.

The person being assessed is often already under some stress  and possibly feels resistant to any additional interrogation, so it's important that they are treated with respect.

Often you can see why some people return to work and others don't, because you observe whether they are motivated or not.

I'm always aware that the report is part of a process to ensure a fair resolution.

What factors led you to choose a career in Orthopaedics?

I probably didn't realise it back then but I was as always destined to do something with my head and hands.

It was somewhat a matter of elimination. I thought I wanted to be an engineer but I didn't think I was good enough at applied maths. Then I thought of architecture but I wasn't great at drawing. So being an orthopaedic surgeon combined a bit of both from each discipline – sort of the architecture and engineering of the body.

I have an identical twin brother who's an an ophthalmologist in New Zealand. Maybe there was a bit of healthy sibling rivalry when we both went through medicine at university together.

I guess a defining moment for me was when I did my first ward round with a physician and I knew I didn't want to spend my days talking to patients from the foot of their bed – I needed to be hands on – so I went on to be an orthopopaedic surgeon, and I've never looked back.

I'm still really interested in architecture though.