In Their Own Words: Healthy Communities Depend on Access to Primary Care

At the core of healthy, thriving, and successful communities lies a strong primary care system. Unfortunately, many Durham Region residents are unable to find a physician who is accepting new patients.

But a novel approach to medical education could change that. Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief, Academic Affairs and Research, Dr. Nadia Ismiil and Chief and Medical Director, Family and Community Medicine; Medical Director, Lakeridge Gardens, Dr. Joel Kennedy share their how Lakeridge Health is helping to increase access to primary care.

With so many communities in Ontario and across Canada in need of family doctors, the new Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program, which welcomed its first 20 students in September, holds tremendous promise to break this cycle.

This program is the first-of-its kind in Canada. For students and future doctors, this program enables learning in a hands-on, engaging environment that mirrors a real-life clinic where they will potentially practice full time.

Family medicine is based on a relationship of trust and respect between people and their doctor. What makes this program unique is that these future doctors will start building critical relationships with Lakeridge Health health-care professionals and community organizations right from the beginning of the six-year program.

Most exciting is that these students will be part of a novel medical education program that puts the health of Durham residents first.

Lakeridge Health’s vision is to have students practicing in clinics across Durham Region, fostering relationships with patients. This will help them to connect to the communities they may serve in their future practices.

From a patient’s lens, care becomes consistent and increasingly comprehensive with more hands, eyes, and ears in our communities and hospitals.

Lakeridge Health’s role in the coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic solidified its leadership on a regional and provincial level. This new program adds further credibility to what we established during the pandemic while highlighting the innovative spirit of our community based health system, Lakeridge Health.

Based at the Oshawa Hospital, the Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program will also bring in new opportunities in research, innovation, human resources, and education.

Recently, we welcomed Dr. Allan Grill as the first Assistant Dean of the Queen’s-Lakeridge Health Campus. His term is effective August 15, 2023 and runs through to June 30, 2028. To read more about Dr. Grill and his role, visit the Queen’s University website.

The new Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program is a critical major step to strengthening the Durham Region primary care system and helping us to achieve our vision of One System. Best Health.

We hope you are as excited as we are to welcome the new students to Lakeridge Health and Durham Region. We know we will learn as much from them as they will from us and our teams.