New doctors begin training in Barrie to help with family physician shortage

Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, Ont. welcomes nine new resident doctors to the Family Medicine Teaching Unit in Barrie. Front row, from left: Drs. Matthew Diston, Nousha Shirkhani, Adele Kim, Kaviya Praveen and Ali Yazdanfar. Back row, from left: Drs. Lindsay Wu, Esme Kittle, Rumsha Siddiqui and Tania Ocaranza. ________________________________________

A fresh group of young doctors is starting training at Simcoe County’s largest health centre, and hospital staff say their arrival couldn’t have come at a better time.

Nine resident physicians joined Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre’s (RVH) Family Medicine Teaching Unit as part of their final two years of training before they can practice solo. The program is meant to help ease the family doctor shortage across the region, where more than 55,000 people reportedly don’t have a primary care provider.

Dr. Matt Orava, now a family physician at RVH, went through the same residency program in 2014 and decided to stay in Barrie afterward.

“The training I received at RVH was so comprehensive and supportive that when I finished, there was nowhere else I wanted to be,” said Dr. Orava. “I felt part of a team, part of a community. That sense of belonging made it easy to stay.”

Since 2009l, the teaching unit has trained more than 120 family medicine resident physicians. About 60 per cent of them choose to stay in the region, either opening practices or stepping in to help in areas like emergency care, palliative medicine and hospital work.

RVH officials said programs such as this are vital as the local population grow sand demand for health care rises.

“By fostering a culture of mentorship and collaboration, it strengthens RVH’s role as both a care provider and a training ground for future physicians—a combination that benefits patients today while building the health care workforce of tomorrow," noted Dr. Jeffrey Tyberg, the hospital’s chief of staff and vice president of academic and medical affairs.