Bluewater Health is launching a residency program with Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry on Canada Day.
Chief of Staff Dr. Michel Haddad, who also serves as Lambton's regional academic director for the school's distributed education, said starting July 1 a family medicine resident, specializing in emergency medicine, will join physicians in Sarnia's emergency department for a year-long stint.
Haddad said the resident must have completed a two-year family medicine placement first, before applying to the program.
He said it's a creative way to showcase Sarnia's hospital to new physicians and encourage them to practice full time in the community.
"Part of this program actually is the expectation of a four-year return on service," said Haddad. "So they train here for a year, then they stay on for four years and my hope is that they stay here for much longer than that."
Haddad said they're really excited about the new opportunity because many physicians at Bluewater Health are already adjunct professors at the school.
"We continue to work on strengthening our bonds. As you know, many of our patients go back and forth between London and Sarnia, so we're proud to be involved or helping Western train the next generation of physicians," he said. "This is actually only one of the many steps that we're doing in that endeavour."
Bluewater Health already has a family medicine program in Petrolia, where new doctors spend months training with primary care physicians and do various rotations in specialties in Sarnia.
