Dr Carey-Smith (61) who helped set up Dunedin's first hospice, is a palliative care specialist with 32 years' experience in general practice.
General practice was now more about "ticking boxes" and overseeing chronic illness, rather than diagnostic nous and the quick-thinking needed for after-hours emergencies.
Set guidelines now covered many ailments, meaning a GP's role had grown "more technical than medical".
Dr Carey-Smith acknowledged that many of his patients had grown older with him, which might account for the chronic illnesses he noticed. Also, changing diets and lifestyles meant an increase in such ailments as diabetes and obesity.
Modern medicine meant illnesses were properly managed, resulting in fewer emergency and acute situations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, GPs were still the first port of call for emergencies, no matter what time of day. Now, an ambulance would be called.
It was not unusual for the phone to ring at 3am, whether it was for a labour, an asthma attack, or a heart complaint, he said.
Patients were understanding when he occasionally abandoned them mid-appointment after being called to attend a birth.
The involvement in every part of a patient's life, including labour, meant being a GP was a calling, rather than a job.
Helping a new life enter the world would see him "buzzing" for the rest of the day, no matter how little sleep he had if it was an early morning call-out.
Family life and outings did suffer. Being on call all the time was not easy in the days before cellphones. Someone always needed to know how to reach him.
Weekends off were managed with a roster between local GPs to cover each other's patients. House calls were an everyday occurrence, and Dr Carey-Smith had a small consulting room at his Honeystone St home for after-hours appointments.
Dr Carey-Smith, originally from Stratford, Taranaki, graduated from Otago Medical School in 1973. After working for a couple of years in Dunedin, he headed to England to work, before setting up sole general practice in Dunedin in 1978, with wife Susan as his secretary.
Dr Carey-Smith established the Helensburgh Medical Centre about seven years later, where he practised until last month.
Dr Carey-Smith's involvement in the hospice movement came partly through frustration at seeing terminal patients suffering. One young woman, he remembers, died in pain because he was unsure how much morphine she could safely have.
He trained as a palliative care specialist, and was involved in the movement to set up Dunedin's first hospice, established in 1990.
Since then, he had been closely involved with the Otago Community Hospice, dividing his work between the hospice and the surgery.
Some of the challenge no longer in GP work was still a large part of palliative care, in terms of working out the right treatment for each patient.
Dr Carey-Smith said he had been "blessed" to work in the hospice and as a GP. Neither felt like a job; in both roles he was surrounded by a "wonderful" team.
With an interest in woodwork and "creating things", Dr Carey-Smith will not be short of things to do in his retirement. He will also enjoy spending more time at the couple's cottage near Arrowtown.
