Morden Menzies Medical Centre (MMC) welcomed four new doctors to the clinic in a social media post recently.
MMC Executive Director Nicole Walske was happy to share about the new physicians serving Morden residents.
"Doctor Cael Enns joined us in summer of 2022, so we're very excited to have him. He did his residency, at times, at Boundary Trails Health Center, so he's a somewhat familiar face to our physicians. And so, he will be continuing with us at the clinic, providing his family practice and ER services at Boundary Trails. So, we're very excited to have him on a full-time basis. He and his family have moved to Morden and have a young growing family, so we're excited to welcome them to the community of Morden as well."
There are two doctors here to help bridge the existing gap in services, due to so many patients being without a family doctor, therefore putting a strain on services such as the Walk-In Clinic and ER.
Walske said these doctors are here on a term.
"Doctor Sandhawalia is with us until the end of this fiscal year, December 2022, and Doctor Kim is intended to stay with us until August of 2023, unless we can convince her to stay longer."
Walske shared some details about the most recent doctor to move to Morden to serve permanently with existing ties to Morden.
"At the end of September, we were very fortunate to welcome Doctor Phil Fourie. Doctor Fourie and his family are living here in Morden. His wife grew up in this area, so we're very glad to have them back in the community with their two young daughters. He will be at the clinic on a full-time basis and then providing services at the hospital, as needed, for doctor-of-the-day, and any admissions and care in that regard as well."
This is a great start to meet the need in Morden but Menzies Medical Centre is in need of more doctors to address the growing shortage of family doctors as Morden grows.
Walske addressed the shortage and what it will take to meet this need.
"In a recent conversation I had with Family Doctor Finder, they said we could recruit 10 family physicians and probably still have people on our list. I'm not sure how accurate that information is, but I know that we wouldn't stop recruiting at two or three. There's going through more retirements that we need to plan for so, I don't know that there is a limit on how many we would recruit, but I think 10 would be a good start, and with the amount of growth, it's probably still not enough."
Doctor Finder is the Provincial Government website where people without a family doctor can register to get one.