Palmerston hospital wants to be a teaching site

MAPLETON – Mapleton council approved awarding municipal funds towards local health care recruitment but not before hearing about some successes and an effort towards making Palmerston and District Hospital a teaching site in the future. 

The Minto-Mapleton health professional recruitment committee was approved for $10,000 towards recruitment efforts at Tuesday afternoon’s Mapleton council meeting. 

Dr. Christine Peterkin, a family physician at the Mapleton Health Centre and chief of staff at North Wellington Health Care Corp., told council of the local residency program which is seeing an increase of interest from doctors in training following a bit of a slump. 

Following adjusting to the changing landscape of family medicine residents, who Peterkin said are looking for more flexibility, housing and a supportive environment, they were able to market the area as a good place to come and learn. 

“We have an almost full roster of residents coming up in the next year,” Peterkin said. “There are potentially six blocks to be filled and we have filled four out of six so far.”

Peterkin also explained they are working towards making Palmerston and District Hospital a teaching site in 2025 and 2026 despite the residency program being geared more towards Louise Marshall Hospital. 

“Palmerston has never really been considered a longitudinal site, which means when a resident comes for family medicine training, when they come with me it’s just for two months at a time,” she said. “In a longitudinal setting, their home base would be our area then that would be the launch pad for the two years they’re doing their family medicine training to go to their specialty sites.”

This means, Peterkin explained, these residents would come back to a family medicine practice locally for their whole two years of training which she sees as significant for the long term. 

“If they enjoy their time with us, if they create those ties then when they’re done their training, a lot of them will stay,” Peterkin said. 

The doctor said this will involve government funding as they will need to be able to support having both supervisors and trainees stationed there for that time period. 

Coun. Michael Martin noted Listowel Memorial Hospital is partnering with Western University for training and asked if they are doing something similar for the potential teaching site at Palmerston. 

Peterkin said they are pursuing a relationship with McMaster University as there is a pre-existing relationship with them through Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest.