I recently had a chance to meet with reporter Nick Purdon from CBC’s The National to discuss the crisis in access to primary care that we are facing. He asked that we talk about solutions, not just problems. One part of that discussion that didn’t make the cut was about expansion and modernization of training. While this is not going to solve things on its own — we still also need team-based sustainable practice models — there are a lot of exciting developments on the horizon here at Queen’s and within Queen’s Family Medicine.
Our postgraduate program will be expanding over the next few years, adding at least 18 (and likely more) positions. Those residents will be joining our award-winning program, which was just nominated again for the PARO Residency Program Excellence Award, and getting to work with our outstanding team of preceptors, educational leaders, and supporting staff.
In May, Dr. Brent Wolfrom will be handing over the program director role to Dr. Kim Curtin, who has been leading our Peterborough-Kawartha site for many years. She brings great ideas and energy to the role and will be taking over in a time of change, with both expansion and Outcomes of Training coming forward in parallel.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Brent for his outstanding leadership of the program. He’s helped lead us through some difficult times and done so with integrity. Team Primary Care is the federally supported project that is exploring exciting new approaches to training family doctors and other primary care providers to meet Canada’s future health workforce needs. I’d encourage everyone to take some time to check out their website, as there are multiple streams of work and many very exciting projects!
The other big news is the Queen’s University Senate’s approval this week of the “major adaptation” to the Queen’s MD program to allow the Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program to go ahead. (Read Queen’s University and Lakeridge Health Establish Collaboration to Address Physician Shortage.) This innovative program will focus on preparing students for a career in comprehensive family medicine (initial group size will be 20 students per year) and is designed to flow directly into a family medicine residency program without participation in the CaRMS match.
I’d like to thank the many faculty members who have been participating in this program’s working groups, who have been doing an incredible amount of work on very tight timelines. It is YOUR contributions now and going forward that will help ensure this program achieves success and meets its goals.
These are all major initiatives that represent one of the largest expansions in medical training in decades and, together, they have huge potential to address the pressing need for family doctors to support Canadians and the Canadian health-care system for decades to come.
Dr. Michael Green
Department Head
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