The Funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick’s Church, Donagh, on Tuesday morning, for Dr. Norbert Lynch, a highly regarded retired Fermanagh GP.

Dr. Lynch, an innovative doctor, who enjoyed a 25 year career at Lisnaskea Health Centre, passed away at his home in Ballyhullagh, Lisnaskea on February 22, 2015, surrounded by his family.

In 2009, he took early retirement after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

During his career at Lisnaskea Health Centre, he was instrumental in implementing many changes including the out-of-hours service ‘WestDoc’.

Born in County Meath in 1953, Dr. Lynch, aged 61, was educated in Mullingar and then at University College Dublin. On April 20, 1984, he arrived as a locum at Lisnaskea.

He joined the partnership of the late Dr Nora Casey, the late Dr Paddy Porteous and Dr George George as a partner in September 1984.

He went about helping to transform the medical equipment by introducing the first nebuliser in 1984, and in 1986, he saw that the clinic had its first terminal care syringe driver. The first defibrillator arrived soon after. Dr. Lynch welcomed the first computer to the practice in 1989 and embraced the move to become one of the first paper-free practices, moving from paper to computerised records. Offices he held included former Chairman of the Fermanagh GP Association, Computer Advisor and member of ICT group for the Western Health and Social Services Board (WHSSB), member of the Data Retrieval Group, member of Western Local Medical Committee (LMC), member of the Acute Services Review WHSSB Group and one of the founders of WestDoc (1998). Dr. Lynch had also taken part in research with Queen’s University on strokes and family history, elderly and neurology.

Latterly he was involved in the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Fermanagh branch.

In a tribute to Dr Lynch this week, Eugene Gallagher, retired Head of Primary Care Western Health and Social Services Board said “Norbert will be sadly missed”. He said: “He not only provided great care for your practice’s patients, but made things much better for the whole population in the West by giving so generously of his time, knowledge and expertise in the development of primary care.” In the acknowledgement to their “dear friend and colleague”, Dr. Lynch, staff at Maple Group Practice commented he had such an influence in all of their lives in such a positive way. He always encouraged and supported personal development as he viewed it not only as a personal investment but also an investment for the practice as a whole. He believed in people which gave them confidence to achieve. They said he was ‘a true strategic thinker, a visionary in many aspects always ahead of his time ensuring the practice was ready to cope with whatever changes were coming.’ He continued to drop in to the practice and offer guidance in areas such as managing prescribing budgets, audit and indeed contributed to the I.T. modules of the recent RCGP Quality Practice Award achieved by what has now become Maple Group Practice. Up until a few days before his passing he was looking at the way ahead for the practice in terms of service development and new premises and had as always some invaluable advice.

Among his leisure interests, Dr Lynch enjoyed playing Bridge, carrying out research, working with computers and walking. He had also enjoyed gardening.

A man, who will be greatly missed by his family. his burial took place at St. Colmcille’s Cemetery, Kells, Co. Meath.

The husband of Liz Towell and of the late Rosemary (nee Fitzsimons), he was the father of Thomas, John, Anne and David. A son of Tommy and the late Kathleen Lynch, of Oldcastle, Co. Meath, he was a brother to Noel, Frankie, Maura, Philip, Ann and Breda.

The funeral arrangements were by Swift and McCaffrey Funeral Directors, Lisnaskea, where donations in lieu of flowers, if desired, are being directed to Multiple Sclerosis Society or Cancer Research UK.