Dr Peter Boot

Peter was born in Warkworth, into a medical family, which moved to Takapuna. He grew up by the beach, sailing, camping, fishing, hunting, skiing and studying. Accepted into Auckland Grammar, he went on to study medicine in Auckland. After a gap year adventuring around the world, he came back to further qualify in obstetrics and gynaecology and General Practice, later becoming a Fellow of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

Back in the 90s, Peter and two colleagues had a vision of building a new style of GP clinics. These would be faster, more professional and more patient-centred than had been the tradition. Dr Boot built Takapuna Medical Centre and that is where he started.

With the advent of private A&M clinics being developed in Sydney, Peter decided to build one himself and purchased land in the developing Albany area. He called the new center 'Albany Basin Accident and Medical' and it was a successful 7-day clinic, the first of its kind.

Around this time the North Shore GPs, along with Peter, built 'Shorecare Accident and Medical' using the same architect Peter had used for Albany Basin. Then, when roading changes isolated the center, Peter built a large new medical complex off Constellation Drive near the motorway and called it 'Northcare Accident and Medical'.

Northcare provided an alternative 7-day Accident and Medical to Shorecare and the building also housed a pharmacy, lab, radiology and MRI scanning, GPs, urgent care, physio, dentistry, hand and orthopedic specialists, podiatry, varicose veins expertise, women's health and other services, setting a standard of a quality 'one-stop shop' for the people of the North Shore.

He has also founded Silverdale Medical, along with his friend and colleague Dr Marcus Platts-Mills, and Silverdale Medical has grown into a very large practice with a number of satellite clinics.

In Takapuna, Peter focused on general practice but also delivered babies at North Shore Hospital, having trained at National Women's. He enjoyed sport, writing articles on sports nutrition and was doctor for Takapuna Rugby Club for a time. He became a Police Surgeon and went on to manage the Police Medical Officers both on the North Shore and in downtown Auckland.

He was appointed as a doctor for NZ Customs and a doctor in the District Courts, both North Shore and Auckland. Being interested in boating and having worked as a seaman on an international container ship in his gap year, Peter became an examiner for NZ Maritime Safety, certifying seafarers. He was also made a panel doctor by the Australian Consulate. Peter is currently certified to conduct immigration medicals for both Australia and New Zealand and to supervise trainee doctors in both the GP training scheme and the Royal College of Urgent Care training schemes.

During the COVID pandemic, instead of closing up and restricting operations, Peter decided that Northcare should step up and host full-scale COVID testing and immunisation. He worked on all aspects of management, tele-consultation, a large-scale drive-through testing facility and a vaccination centre, even developing a Health Passport vaccination certificate card with QR codes, feeding back to the national immunisation database. He received an award for services to the community for this.

Peter is married and has two daughters at university. They live locally and spend time riding horses and bikes, boating, socialising, skiing and going to the gym. Peter reads a lot and has a big garden to look after. He is involved in looking after airlines, hotels, super yachts and international assistance operations and is never far from his phone. He has worked as a doctor overseas and on expeditions to Antarctica.

As part of his practice, Dr Boot is involved in The Hotel Doctors, providing medical services to hotels and overseas visitors across New Zealand and he conducts seafarers medicals for NZ maritime safety. These are fully equivalent to the ENG1 medicals.

Peter decided that Northcare should add telehealth to sit alongside general practice and urgent care. During his research, came across Tend Health, an app-based medical service founded by James and Cecilia Robinson (formerly of My Food Bag). They wanted to buy the medical practice within Northcare. Peter and his wife, wanting to move away from employing a large staff, sold it to them. The idea was that Peter would continue working as a GP in the practice, but following the transition it was time to move on.

Peter is now looking for somewhere else where he can continue to care for the community and can be contacted on 021 525 252 or by email at peter@stmarks.nz.