For 60 years, Dr Ron Bade served his country town around the clock.

As a rural GP, Dr Bade also took on the roles of surgeon, obstetrician and paramedic.

Now retired, Dr Bade's legacy is in the lives he saved and the professionals he trained.

His community, the western Victorian town of Edenhope, credits Dr Bade with helping its health service to grow, while nearby towns grapple with a doctor shortage.

Life-giving service

Over his six decades as Edenhope's GP, emergencies would call Dr Bade from his bed, Sunday service and elaborate dinners.

"It was a crown roast, it was an auspicious occasion," Dr Bade said, remembering one of the memorable calls he received.

"The phone rang. [The nurse said] 'I'm here with Phyllis McGleish. She's just delivered the first of her twins — what should I do?'

"I got over to deliver the second twin."

Dr Bade delivered multiple generations of Edenhope babies and once delivered five babies within 24 hours.

He said the most memorable occasions were the babies he saved.

Heather Loane was four months old in 1976 when she was brought to the hospital with meningitis.

"[The baby] was desperately sick," Dr Bade remembered.

"We didn't hear much more about that child until a number of years later [when] Mrs Loane wrote to the hospital with a donation because she [Heather] had graduated from medicine."

Dr Ron Bade, pictured with wife Val, served his country town as a GP for six decades. ( Supplied )

There are other cases that stand out — like the 10-year-old boy with a hernia whose heart Dr Bade had to physically compress, by opening up his chest, until it started beating again.

"That was before we had any systems of doing cardiac compression," Dr Bade said.

"I sliced the chest open and I put my hand in and started compressing his heart and it was only three or four compressions and it was going 'bom bom bom'."

Bringing medical technology to 'the sticks'

Dr Bade introduced chemotherapy, dialysis, and advanced cardiac care to the town of about 1,000 people — often adopting the latest technology before bigger regional centres.

Former director of nursing, Jo Crothers, came from a South Australian town about triple the size of Edenhope.

She said Edenhope's hospital punched above its weight.

"I came over here to find we had an ECG machine," she said.

"I think it took a hell of a lot of getting from Dr Bade's point of view because they didn't think a little place like Edenhope out there in the sticks warranted anything like that."

Dr Bade credits his staff with the success of Edenhope Hospital, which has attracted millions of dollars through fundraising and donations. ( Supplied: Edenhope Memorial Hospital )

Blood donors 'on tap'

Pauline Kelly worked at the hospital for 35 years and would often accompany Dr Bade to car crashes.

"He'd pull in here and grab a nurse and head off out to accidents and [would] also warn the nurse not to look at the speedo," she said.

"He triaged on the side of the road and often followed them [the patient] through to the operating theatre as well."

Then would come the call for blood.

Dr Ron Bade says the small community would quickly respond to requests for blood donations. ( Supplied )

"We'd come on duty and all these people would be lined up in the foyer here," said Carolyn Middleton, who worked as a nurse with Dr Bade.

"[They would say] 'Oh we're just here to give blood, apparently Dr Bade wants some blood for someone'."

Staff called the town's three universal donors directly.

"We had two or three 'O negatives'. They were always just available on tap," Dr Bade said.

"I could have them down here in five minutes and you'd have a pint of blood in the fridge."

Community spirit

The community gave much more than blood.

In 1999, a local lotto winner gave the hospital $55,000 from his $10 million jackpot.

And the money keeps coming. The hospital is about to upgrade its aged care using a $2.3 million bequest from a former patient.

"There's been a lot of local money," said former hospital CEO Kevin Mills.

"All that comes about because of reputation — not just Dr Bade but he would be a huge part of that."

Dr Bade speaks highly of his colleagues' willingness to try new treatments, some of them written on the back of a napkin by a city specialist.

"All of this credit that we talk about is largely due to the staff who were so good," he said.

"There was a general feeling of goodwill in the place, that we were all working to do something."

Dr Megan Belot, Rural Doctors Association Victoria president and a GP in Cohuna, on the Victoria-South Australia border, said many country towns would have had "their own Dr Bade".

"Super doctors of yesteryear were pretty much doing everything, from doing appendectomies, caesareans, to dealing with car crashes and doing surgeries far beyond their scope of practice," she said.

Dr Belot said rural doctors practising today deserved more support.

"I think it needs to be recognised that you can't be on call 24/7."