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Dr. Parambir Keila, a physician at North Hastings Hospital and former Quinte Health Rural Medicine Chief/Medical Director, is hopeful.

He sees a new, first-in-Canada medical education model through Queen’s University as a promising recruitment avenue to bring more family physicians to beautiful Bancroft.

At a time when family medicine physicians are in critically short supply (the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario forecasts that one-quarter of Ontarians will be without one by 2026), why not make it easier for those with a passion for family medicine to become practicing family medicine physicians?

That’s what Queen’s University has done through its Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program. Specifically designed to address the shortage of family doctors, the program aims to graduate practice-ready, community-focused physicians able to provide comprehensive care to patients in southeastern Ontario.

Traditionally, medical students who choose family medicine spend four years in the classroom before completing a two-year residency. But through this new program, clinical placements are completed concurrently in smaller communities over the course of the program, giving students hands-on experience right away, better preparing them for their Family Medicine Residency.

Recognizing this program as beneficial for physician recruitment, Quinte Health partnered with Queen’s University to invite learners to Bancroft for clinical placements.

Dr. Keila was pleased to host two first-year students at North Hastings Hospital (NHH), first for a two-week placement in January, followed by a full month in the spring. The students are both returning this fall for a three-month rotation.

“Both students enjoyed their first placement so much that they asked to return,” said Dr. Keila. “It’s fun to have learners around that are keen to learn what you’re doing.”

As a rural hospital, NHH is unique because the physicians provide comprehensive care—something Dr. Keila says is less common these days. Comprehensive care means that family doctors will also provide emergency medicine care, palliative care, hospitalist medicine etc. They wear many hats.

“This is a selling point for Bancroft. The students can practice in a comprehensive scope,” said Dr. Keila. “Most students consider a rural rotation to be a checkmark in their overall rotations. With this program, you have students wanting to be family doctors, which is half the battle, and hopefully wanting to do comprehensive care. I see comprehensive care as a solution to burnout because you get to see different types of patients, enhancing job satisfaction.

“One of the students very explicitly said that what they’re seeing rurally is more enticing to them than what they’d see in a city,” he added. “I’m hopeful that through this partnership with Queen’s University, more medical students will experience the joys of practicing in Bancroft and similar-sized communities. I 100% think this will help with recruitment in communities like ours.”

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