Tag: members in the media

The Sudbury Star Published an article on December 29, 2022

By Helen Morley

On Thursday, Dec. 15, the Espanola Regional Hospital and Health Centre announced that Chelsea Gagnon a registered practical nurse, working in the Family Health Team, is the recipient of the 2022 WeRPN Michael & Werner Geidlinger Award of Excellence in Palliative Care.

The announcement states, “She was recognized for having helped many patients and families during their palliative care journeys, as well as advocating for them, providing the best quality of care and helping to meet the patients’ needs and goals.”

According to Gagnon’s bio on the WeRPN (Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario) home page, she began her career as a personal support worker (PSW) at a group home for clients with disabilities. To expand her knowledge, Gagnon decided to pursue a career in nursing at Sault College.

Upon graduation in 2017, Gagnon returned to her hometown of Espanola. She works in the Family Health Team, with the complex and palliative support team. To train for her role Gagnon took several courses, including Pallium’s Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) courses.

Along with two other nurses, Gagnon and her team, “assess the needs of patients in the community and provide support to individuals with life-limiting illness.” This is a role she has fulfilled for the past year.

She explains, “We wanted to go into these people’s homes and get to know them so we could provide them with the best quality of life for the time they have.”

The goal of Gagnon and the complex and palliative support team is to get patients into the program as early as possible so they can, “best support patients’ wishes, follow them along their journeys and assist them in transitioning at the end of life.” They provide, “holistic care that goes beyond a sole focus on patients’ physical ailments, but rather looks at their overall wellbeing, including their mental, spiritual and emotional health.”

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Sootoday Published an article on November 26, 2022

By Alex Flood

“I think this award is for my whole team, not just for me,” says Dr. Anjali Oberai, a family doctor at the Wawa Medical Centre who has been named the 2022 Ontario Family Physician of the Year by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP).

The award is the OCFP’s highest honour, presented annually to a family doctor who provides exceptional patient care while improving the health of communities and well-being of society.

“It’s a huge honour to be given an award like this,” Oberai says. “But you can’t do good work if you don’t have a good team to work with, and I have a great team. This award is for all of us.”

Oberai has provided comprehensive primary care for over 25 years in a variety of capacities like residents’ homes, her office, and the emergency room.

She’s also an associate professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and has been co-chair of Family Medicine since 2015.
Oberai even works 24-hour shifts on a regular basis to ensure the ER in Wawa remains open.

“After you’ve been around for a while, those shifts just become part of your work,” she says. “You don’t actually think about it that much. It’s just part of your job.”

Oberai is just one of two physicians working at the medical centre in Wawa, and she’s the only one dedicated to on-call deliveries.

She says they’ve been no stranger to the doctor shortage that’s impacted healthcare across the province.

“Traditionally, we’ve been very lucky up here as we work in a team-based system,” she says. “But in the last few years, we’ve started to see some cracks, and COVID has added extra challenges. We remain hopeful that we will recruit, and I think NOSM has helped with that.”

Oberai says her experience working with students through NOSM has been incredibly fulfilling and is a highlight of her career.

“It’s a really rewarding part of my practice,” she says. “The creation of NOSM gave physicians like me and many others these great opportunities for teaching and leadership at the school. We have two medical students up here with us now. It keeps you sharp having learners with you.”

“I remain hopeful that family medicine will once again be a top choice for people to come in from medical school,” she adds.

The Ontario Family Physician of the Year award is peer-nominated, meaning Oberai’s colleagues, staff, and patients had written letters of support to the OCFP vouching for her to be recognized – leaving the family doctor nearly speechless.

“I admire my peers and colleagues so much, so to be nominated by them just makes it extra special because I’m in awe of them,” she says. “For them to think of me, it’s really special.”

Even after working as a physician for over 25 years, Oberai says she still finds a lot of joy in her career.

“I think over time, it’s that relationship you develop with patients,” she says. “There’s so much variety in the work, and you know it’ll be different every day. I just feel so lucky that I chose this profession.”

Inside Ottawa Valley Published an article on September 10, 2022

By Tara Gesner

Beckwith local Karen Simpson feels strongly that Carleton Place needs a family health team to serve Beckwith and Carleton Place residents.

“I see the benefits of a family health team through my work in Arnprior,” she told Carleton Place council on Aug. 23.

Simpson is the executive director of the Arnprior and District Family Health Team and is aiding Ottawa Valley Family Health Team (OVFHT) executive director Peter Hamer to bring a family health team to Carleton Place.

“Not having a family health team in Carleton Place makes it much more difficult to recruit physicians,” Simpson said. “Family physicians look for team-based care these days.

“Carleton Place and Beckwith are growing significantly, looking at projections, so we know we will need more physicians,” she added.

A family health team is a community-centred primary care organization whose programs and services are geared to the population groups it serves. Located in Almonte, the OVFHT is funded by the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC).

According to Hamer, the MOHLTC has a significant interest in expanding the teams, but almost none in creating new ones. Hence, an application is before the Ministry of Health, submitted in May 2022, for the extension of the OVFHT.

The proposal looks at additional nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered practical nurses, mental health workers, dietitians, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists. They offer a myriad of programs and services — from individual ones provided to patients but also those aimed at health prevention to management of chronic illness (diabetes, obesity, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, frailty in older adults, hypertension, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and more).

“We want to bring these allied health-care professionals and resources into Carleton Place,” Hamer noted. “It is both a significant need and value for the Carleton Place and Beckwith communities.”

He explained: “If you are a patient of a doctor in Carleton Place and need to see a psychotherapist, dietician, diabetic educator, etc., you pay for these programs and services if you do not have benefits. However, you do not pay if you have a family health team that supports your doctor.”

In Almonte, the OVFHT is co-located with the municipality’s doctors but physicians are not participants in the team.

Carleton Place physicians voted unanimously to support the extension of the OVFHT, recognizing it as a retention and recruitment strategy.

“This was a key component,” Hamer stressed. “We needed to have the physicians buy into it.”
Another critical piece to making this successful is finding a location — creating a space to colocate the physicians with the family health team.

“Across the province, it is the model that works the best,” Hamer indicated.

Currently, there are five offices in Carleton Place and Beckwith that house the family physicians.

“We are working hard with some developers and the family health team resources to bring everybody under one roof,” Hamer stated. “This is what new graduates want.”

The ministry has recommended the OVFHT form a working group that involves members (individuals, politicians, etc.) from the two municipalities. Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP John Jordan has already agreed to participate as well as representatives from Beckwith and the health-care sector.

“Carleton Place council’s support means everything because it is by working together that we will move this forward and get it funded,” Simpson said.

With the upcoming municipal election, Mayor Doug Black commented: “No matter who is elected, I am sure you would get support for this initiative. It is long overdue.”

“Carleton Place is a lovely town with a really good hospital and some really dedicated health-care professionals who want to do good things for the community,” Hamer pointed out.

Simpson and Hamer also met with Beckwith council earlier this summer.

The OVFHT executive director is confident ministry approval will come by the end of this calendar year or fiscal year (March 2023).

“Fingers-crossed it goes through, but I do not have any doubts,” Hamer expressed.

CBC Hamilton Published an article on August 14th 2022

By Bobby Hristova

Hundreds of patients already signed up for the 688 Queensdale Ave. clinic that opens Monday.

Hamilton Mountain is getting a new family medicine clinic that is poised to serve roughly 3,600 patients, an addition that comes amid a Canadian shortage of family physicians.

The clinic, run by the Hamilton Family Health Team (HFHT), opens Monday at 688 Queensdale Ave. and will have patients registered to doctors, rather than taking walk-ins.

Doctors Natalie Klostermann, Joyce Moore and Rebecca Voth say they’re eager to get started.

“Really getting to know the patient and see them through a lifetime, hopefully … is a privilege,” Klostermann said.

You walk with people for many, many years … that’s the beautiful part of family medicine.– Dr. Rebecca Voth

Moore grew up in Hamilton and Voth grew up in Kitchener, Ont. They both studied at McMaster University and Klostermann studied at the University of Toronto. All three now live in Hamilton.

Terry McCarthy, HFHT executive director, said the three doctors are starting with no patients, which will benefit people looking for a family doctor.

What’s behind the doctor shortage?

Brad van den Heuvel, a recruitment specialist with Hamilton Physicians at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre, said there are roughly 363 active, permanent family doctors in the city. There are other part-time or contract doctors, but van den Heuvel noted it’s hard to track how many.

He said the city needs roughly 50 more doctors (assuming local doctors are assigned to 1,380 patients each) to ensure everyone has one. But he notes that doesn’t mean there are thousands of people without care.

Georgina Advocate Published an article on August 15th 2022

By Sheri Andrunyk

Beth Cowper-Fung is a nurse practitioner (NP) specializing in primary care, as well as the clinic director at the Georgina Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic (GNPLC). She has worked in Georgina and as an NP since January 2009 and is continually inspired by her patients to give back in the community and beyond. The appreciation goes both ways, and the thoughtful expressions of thanks Beth regularly receives is a tremendous gift to her.

Through Beth’s nursing she personally provides health-care services to over 400 patients, ranging in age from mere months to 93 years. She also leads an amazing team of health-care professionals and administrators in caring for over 3,600 residents of Georgina. Beth prides herself in being involved in committee work with the Southlake Community Ontario Health Team, York Region Vaccine Taskforce, Ontario Health: Quality Division for Primary Care Quality Advisory Committee, and the Provincial Primary Care Advisory Table. Through this, she provides important perspectives on primary care, health-care planning, and issues that affect people locally, regionally, and provincially.

Before going back to university to become a registered nurse, Beth was a medic with the Canadian Armed Forces. Her training as a medic has been the foundation for her education and leadership throughout her career.

In 2003, she was a clinical nurse educator when SARS broke out in the hospital where she worked. Beth was responsible for sharing the updates and personal protective equipment changes of the day to all the medical units in the hospital. This experience was instrumental for her during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2010, she partnered with her NP colleagues, Anne Hughes and Melissa Cassidy, in a successful bid to open the GNPLC to provide services to the people of Georgina who did not have primary care providers. They also provide care to the residents of Georgina Island, local group homes for special needs adults, and outreach to the two local shelters.

Understandably, the pandemic has been very difficult and busy for Beth and her team, from COVID-testing in their parking lot, community centres and schools, to running vaccine clinics and supporting mass vaccination centres, and treating patients with COVID. This, all in addition to their ongoing primary services. That said, one of Beth’s most memorable moments was setting up the first local drive-through COVID-19 testing day in July of 2020, grateful to work with the mayor, local EMS, the fire department, York Region Public Health, and the GNPLC team and board.

To strike a balance during these trying times, Beth relishes quality time with her lovely teenage daughter, Isabelle, and her husband, Sean, who together celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in 2022. She continues to horseback ride with friends, walks and cycles with Sean, and has developed a daily yoga practice.

For more information, visit merkphotography.com/portraits-of-giving.