Dr. H.G. Mackid came west from Ontario in 1889 as Calgary’s fifth physician and surgeon. He and Dr. J.D. Lafferty formed the first group practice in Calgary. The practice began the Mackid Clinic, which lasted almost 75 years.

In 1890, the practice assumed the CPR employee medical contract for the mainline from Golden to Regina. The contract was extended to include medical care for railway crews during the construction of the Calgary to Edmonton railway (1890-92).

Dr. Mackid and then later his son Dr. L.S. Mackid kept the CPR contract for 61 years.

Dr. Mackid, together with other physicians, helped to lead the movement to build Calgary’s first hospitals. He and his colleague Dr. Lindsay formed the first medical staff at the Calgary Cottage Hospital (a converted house with eight to 12 beds) in 1890. It was only the second approved hospital in the NWT.

Three months later, in January 1891, Dr. Mackid admitted the first patient to the Grey Nuns Holy Cross hospital.

In 1892 he performed the first abdominal operation in Calgary (removing several bullet fragments) and in the same year confirmed Dr. Henry George’s suspicion of the first case of smallpox epidemic, brought by passengers on the CPR. He was later instrumental in initiating the first isolation unit in Calgary for patients with smallpox.

He was instrumental in saving the financially challenged new Calgary General Hospital in 1908, by implementing a 0.50¢ per month charge for all CPR employees for medical and hospital care. That same year he provided the General Hospital with its first x-ray unit.

In 1911, 300 cases of typhoid fever, caused by dumping effluent or sewage directly into the Bow River, were diagnosed in Calgary. Dr. Mackid and his son initiated a mass inoculation campaign, immunizing thousands in the city, which thwarted a repeat typhoid outbreak.

Mackid became the third NWT medical president in 1893, and in 1911, became the first Canadian Medical Association President from Alberta. During his year-long presidency, the CMA membership increased by 33%, and 350 physicians attended the Edmonton AGM.

Diagnosed with diabetes in 1910, he was pulled out of retirement by his son’s enlistment during World War I. He died in 1916, just a year before Dr. Collip (who went on to isolate therapeutically effective insulin) arrived in Alberta.