Tributes have been paid to a GP who helped set up a Northamptonshire village surgery which has since been used by thousands of people.
Dr Dip Dutta, who died last month, established the present medical centre in Bugbrooke in September 1983 with Dr David Paine.
The expanding surgery then covered Nether Heyford, Harpole, Kislingbury and Gayton, and now has about 10,000 patients.
John Curtis, chairman of the parish council, said: “I helped the GPs find a suitable piece of land that the county council was willing to sell and Dr Paine and Dr Dutta financed it themselves.
“As a village we were always very grateful to them for being so instrumental.”
Dr Dutta was born in Assam, India, and moved to England in 1966 to be part of the NHS. He arrived in Bugbrooke in 1974 and took over the house-cum-surgery of the retiring village GP.
In the early days the doctors were on call alternate nights and alternate weekend and once the surgery closed at lunchtime on Saturday calls were put through to the house until 8.30am.
Patients would come to the house when the doctor was on call and home visits to see patients were routine on a daily basis, unlike today’s telephone appointments.
As well as being a key parish council member, Dr Dutta set up the village heart therapy group, after himself having a heart bypass when aged 50.
He passed away on May 23.