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In the 50 years he has lived in Canberra, he has founded John James Hospital, served as Liberal leader in the Legislative Assembly and created a national private hospital association – now Dr Peter Hughes is being honoured for his lifetime contribution to the ACT.
On Monday Dr Hughes will be awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to medicine, a range of professional associations and to the community.
Dr Hughes said he was honoured to receive the award and honoured that his friends and colleagues had put his name forward for nomination.
Born in Wagga Wagga in 1932, Dr Hughes grew up on a farm in Junee Reefs before moving to Canberra in 1962, eight years after he graduated with a degree in medicine from Sydney University.
"It was slow going at first because the population in Canberra was largely a youngish one and as a urologist I dealt particularly with senior citizens," he said.
"But gradually it became busy enough for another person to come along to help out. Although I was Canberra's only urologist for about five years."
Dr Hughes said he was one of the primary founders of Canberra's John James Hospital, the second private hospital in the ACT. He organised it with a group of private doctors, who decided to go ahead without a major organisation's backing.
"It was horrendous [at first]," he said. "When we tried to borrow from banks they said, 'Oh yeah, chaps, we'll give you some money' but they got a guarantee that all the doctors had to sign, saying they'd give in money if the whole enterprise failed. They could take all the money from any one individual," he said.
"So it was quite dangerous economically for the families concerned to go into this project ... The only advice we got from a major private businessman was 'What you've got is undercapitalised, it won't fly.' And he was almost right!"
Over his 50 years in the profession Dr Hughes founded a number of medical organisations, both nationally and in the ACT, including the Australian Private Hospitals Association and the Provincial Surgeons Association.
He also stood for the ACT Legislative Assembly in 1974 and was the leader of the Liberal Party for three years until January 1977.
Dr Hughes laughed when asked if he ever thought about going back into politics. "I write the odd letter to The Canberra Times, that's enough!" he said.