2.5 million Ontario residents don’t have a family doctor.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n“We’re in the process of attempting to roster upwards of 10,000 patients,” said Coccimiglio, who has been practising family medicine in Thunder Bay for about seven years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In order to reach that target, the Port Arthur Health Centre has brought on six new family physicians as well as four specialists, consisting of two ophthalmologists, a cardiologist and a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n
“We recognize the significant need for access to primary care in our community,” said John Marrello, the centre’s CEO, in a news release issued last week.<\/p>\n
“By welcoming new family physicians, we are strengthening our ability to provide timely, patient-centered care and ensuring more residents can establish an ongoing relationship with a dedicated doctor.”<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Dr. John Coccimiglio: Port Arthur Health Centre Expansion\u00a0<\/p>\n
Superior MorningDr. John Coccimiglio: Port Arthur Health Centre Expansion<\/p>\n
The Port Arthur Health Centre is seeking new patients. Hear about the clinic\u2019s recent expansion and how it\u2019s managed to get more specialists and family doctors on board.<\/p>\n
Some of the positions were filled with help from the province’s Practice Ready Ontario program, which allows foreign physicians to convert their medical licenses in order to be able to practice in Canada, Coccimiglio explained.<\/p>\n
Another source of support is the centre’s partnership with Northern Ontario School of Medicine University (NOSM).<\/p>\n
“We’re a teaching site, so we teach a lot of learners and residents through the Northern Ontario School of Medicine,” said Coccimiglio. “That also gives us a lot of exposure in the medical community for recruitment.”<\/p>\n
As well, the centre has been focusing on promoting Thunder Bay as a desirable location for doctors to live, work and play in.<\/p>\n
“Thunder Bay is one of the best cities in the world, and I think there’s so much convenience here,” Coccimiglio said, mentioning the community’s recreational facilities, natural environment, restaurants, college and university.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In addition, the medicine is very good, too. Being in northern Ontario, you have a wider scope of practice, you have a variety of complex patients and see people through all walks of life.”<\/p>\n
The Ontario government’s Primary Care Action Plan<\/a> aims to connect every person in the province with\u00a0a primary care provider by 2029.<\/p>\n“We’re really trying to align with that plan, and we hope that Thunder Bay and our clinic could be part of one piece of that puzzle,” said Coccimiglio.<\/p>\n
Those who are interested in becoming a patient at the Port Arthur Health Centre are encouraged to complete a wait-list application form in person at 194 Court St. N.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. John Coccimiglio estimates there are about 40,000 people without a family doctor in Thunder Bay, Ont., something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-132774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}