The years have passed in a heartbeat - in many heartbeats - as today Dr Terry Flynn announces his retirement.

A chapter in the Highlands' history book will snap shut as Dr Flynn's practice, handed down from doctor to doctor for more than 100 years, closes.

When Dr Flynn arrived, "this was truly a rural setting [with] an extensive range of practice, the full gamut of doctoring".

Dr Flynn "did surgery, anaesthetics, obstetrics, managed the casualty, and looked after [my] own patients in hospital".

But the boom in specialists and allied health centres means single-doctor rooms like Dr Flynn's are now history, too.

He hopes to "have an association with the Bowral Hospital into the future in one way or another" in retirement.

"To refurbish the public hospital, that's been on the table now for at least a decade," Dr Flynn said.

"With $50 million [of state money], you're not going to rebuild Bowral Hospital, but you might develop stage one.

"For a strong public hospital, we need a new physical facility because the old one no longer serves the purpose.

"There is also an opportunity in this to strengthen the ties between the public and private hospitals."

Leaving aside a lifetime of medicine, Dr Flynn will be working on his golf swing and a new interest in cabinet-making.

"I intend to become deeply involved in that: again, something that is probably a thing of the past," he said with a laugh.

Dr Flynn will close his practice on December 31 and patients will be welcome to collect their medical records.