Five NOSM U students will complete a family medicine residency in the Sault

Let’s hope they stay.

Five residents of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University (NOSM U) in family medicine – along with one resident in public health and preventive medicine – will begin their residency program on July 1 in Sault Ste. Marie.

A residency is a training course that new physicians must complete after obtaining their medical degree before they can practice medicine. Family medicine residencies last two years in Canada.

Recruiters have said that many medical school graduates are more likely to hang their shingles in or near the communities in which they trained.

That could be good news for the Sault, which is in dire need of primary care providers for thousands of patients.

“We have six, which is fantastic. We are in a good place,” Dr. Mohammad Rassouli-Rashti said at the Sault Area Hospital board meeting on Monday.

“The family medicine physicians are well known to our program because they have previously completed medical training here,” said Dr. John Heintzman, SAH chief of staff, in a written report to the board.

The residents will complete academic learning and clinical rotations at several community health facilities, including Sault Area Hospital, Group Health Center, Superior Family Health Team and Algoma Public Health.

In addition, Sault’s Physician Recruitment and Retention Program will host the annual Summer Studentship Program in partnership with NOSM University and SAH from June 10 to 30.

This year, nine first- and second-year medical students, originally from Algoma District, will participate in the Summer Studentship Program.

“This program provides an excellent opportunity for our hospital and community to showcase the wide range of medical options available,” SAH spokesperson Brandy Sharp Young said in an email to So today. “By immersing medical students in our clinical areas and providing them with the opportunity to work alongside highly trained healthcare physicians and allied health professionals, SAH aims to become their location of choice for launching and developing their careers.”

The need for primary care physicians in the Sault is dire after it was announced in January that more than 10,000 Group Health Center patients will lose access to their primary care provider and same-day clinic services at GHC from May 31, 2024.

This followed the news in July 2023 that almost 3,000 patients had already been deleted by GHC in six years.

If trends continue, another 6,000 patients could be cut, GHC said.

It is estimated that approximately 30,000 people in the area do not have a primary care provider.

Fewer medical students are choosing family medicine and younger primary care physicians are leaving primary care due to the overwhelming amount of paperwork involved in the profession.

In other SAH news from Monday’s board meeting:

• On May 1, 2024, a general cardiologist will transition to full-time practice at SAH. The cardiologist will provide outpatient follow-up care and ongoing diagnostic testing. With the arrival of the new cardiologist, the Sault will have three such specialists. SAH continues its partnership with St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, which provides SAH with one cardiologist each month.
• SAH has successfully found locum coverage for pacemaker care. An observer will be present on location one to two days every three weeks. SAH continues to make efforts to recruit a permanent physician for that role.