A PIONEERING doctor who worked for 24 years at Hereford County Hospital has died.

John Ross, who lived in Hereford with his wife, Jean, died quietly in his sleep on July 8, aged 95.

He came to Hereford County Hospital as a consultant general physician in 1961.

His friend and former colleague, John Wood, said: "Many of the best aspects of the Hereford's NHS hospitals were planned, designed, and pushed through by John.

"Always fully committed to a successful NHS he founded the Hereford Postgraduate Medical Centre at the county hospital (one of the first in the West Midlands region), which bears his name.

"Proper staff accommodation at Longfield House at the county hospital, the development of a coronary unit and ITU and the introduction of CT scanning are a few examples of improvements which came early to Hereford as a result of John's vision, foresight, and eloquence.

"He introduced renal dialysis to Hereford."

He played a full part in the original Hospital Management Committee and in the Herefordshire Health Authority which followed.

During the Second World War Dr Ross served in the No. 1 Special Force in Italy with Italian resistance (SOE).

With a small group led by Bill Tilman he was dropped into the Italian Dolomites behind the German lines to strengthen the Resistance.

In the Dolomites they were hunted by a German mountain division and some details of those dreadful months were only heard by his family when Dr Ross gave his valedictory lecture in 1985. He was awarded a Military Cross.

In retirement, Dr Ross was an active member of the Hereford Nature Trust, editor of The Flycatcher, a medical historian, keen walker and a portrait painter.

He had Meniere's Disease, which led to episodes of vertigo and progressive deafness - a particular loss for someone with a great love for music.

Otherwise he remained pretty fit until his last few years when he became frail and had a stroke which particularly affected vision.

Dr Woods said: "John Ross was my ideal of a Renaissance man – questioning, kindly, formidably intelligent, tough, energetic, well educated, skilled in many fields, humane and caring, and a wonderful colleague and mentor."

Dr Ross is mourned by Jean, his wife for 67 years, and their four children.

A commemoration for his life will be at 2pm on August 3 at St Barnabas Church Hall, Venns Lane, Hereford.