The art of medicine

GP and author Dr Lucy O’Hagan and her partner, artist Lizzi Yates, talk love, careers and creativity. 

Love stories don’t always travel on linear tracks. And so it was for MAS Member and GP Dr Lucy O’Hagan and her partner, artist Lizzi Yates. Their story is one of many in Lucy’s first book ‘Everything But the Medicine: A Doctor’s Tale’. 

How did your career begin? 

Lucy: I was born in Southland where my father was a GP. Medicine wasn’t always the plan, but I was good at science and wanted to work with people, not things. I did my degree at the University of Otago,  then worked in Gisborne and Whakatāne before training as a GP in Dunedin. My then-partner and I joined a new practice in Wānaka with 2 other doctors, which we ran for 20 years. It was really interesting to live and work in the same community.  

Lizzi: I’m from Nelson and did a BA at the University of Canterbury before heading to London, where I lived in a monastery for 3 years. I eventually followed my boyfriend, then husband, to Wānaka, where he was a ski instructor and metal artist. I had been to Ilam School of Fine Arts at 18, but didn’t complete the degree. In 2020, at the age of 60, I finally spent 3 years studying art at The Learning Connexion in Wellington. 

How did you meet?      

Lizzi: I knew who Lucy was because Wānaka is a small town. I had seen her perform with a local theatre company and thought she was fantastic. She joined me and another actor devising a theatre piece about self harm, and we became great friends. 

Lucy: We were just friends for 7 years until I had a dream about Lizzi. My relationship had broken up by then, but Lizzi was still married and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. Neither of us had had a same-sex relationship before. When I finally confessed to Lizzi, she surprised both of us by saying, “It took you long enough!”  

It was a journey to get where you are now, right? 

Lucy: It wasn’t the easiest thing we’ve ever done. We were certainly the talk of the bridge club! But the people who mattered to us, including my 2 sons and Lizzi’s daughter, were supportive, and we both knew we wanted to make this work.  

The pressure of all these life changes on top of rural general practice did contribute to burn out. I needed to take some time out, so I sold my share of the practice, and when I recovered, we moved to Dunedin. Four years later, we moved to Wellington so Lizzi could study art at The Learning Connexion.  

I’m now a GP at a predominantly Māori-Pasifika practice in Porirua, and I also train GPs, which I’ve been doing for 25 years. I watch about 150 consultations a year, mainly with GP registrars, who I always implore to be themselves. It’s truly magical to see what happens when the doctor is being who they are.

You come from very different professional disciplines, but what makes you tick as a couple?      

Lizzi: We’re both really interested in the creative process and can talk about that endlessly. We are each other’s biggest fans. We also have many shared passions, from biking and walking to gardening. When we bought our house in Kāpiti 4 years ago, there was no garden, so we’ve created one from scratch and love doing projects together. Lucy is the compost queen!  

Why did you decide to write a book? 

Lucy: I started writing a column for ‘New Zealand Doctor’ in 2017. I’m interested in human complexity, what else is going on in people’s lives, other than the medicine. And how we can be more authentic as doctors and not judge people; how we can see the mana in a person regardless of what they’re doing or have done.  

I’ve read lots of books by doctors about patients as interesting or funny cases, but I wanted to write about what it’s like to be a GP and to sit in the doctor’s chair. I also wanted to tell my own story, including my burnout. I’ve realised that the more open I am about my story, the more open other doctors are about theirs. I guess I’ve written the book I would have wanted to read as a medical student or young doctor. 

What does the future look like for you, both personally and professionally?  

Lizzi: I’ve never understood 5-year plans. I feel very lucky to be alive, and at this stage I’m going full steam with my art. For me, it’s not about the product, but the process. But it’s also good to complete work, and in 2025 I was a finalist in the National Contemporary Art Award.  

Currently, I’m working on a series of paintings exploring absurdist garden topiary. I do a weekly online art workshop with a global community, run by an English artist who lives in Paris, and next year we will join her for a week-long workshop in the Pyrenees. 

Lucy: I’ve previously studied kaitiakitanga bicultural professional supervision at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and would quite like to follow it up with the Master of Applied Indigenous Studies. I'm really interested in how mātauranga Māori can inform the way we think and talk about consultations both as GPs and GP teachers. 

‘Everything But the Medicine: A Doctor’s Tale’ by Lucy O’Hagan. RRP $39.99. Published by Massey University Press.