CORNWALL, Ontario – The Cornwall Community Hospital Foundation (CCHF) made a joint presentation with Queen’s University asking for funding for their Adopt a Medical Resident Program.
The program will bring two doctors to the Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) per year for three years.
The program is run through Queen’s University’s Family Medicine-Emergency Medicine program and the CCH has been selected as the official training site for 2019-2021 and is one of the first hospitals in the country to be selected to serve in such a capacity.
“We’re really excited about this initiative. This is a really exciting opportunity for residents,” said Dr. Joseph Newbigging of the Queen’s University School of Medicine. “These are good doctors that you’re getting that are tried and true. What’s great for Cornwall is that you have some choice in the candidates that are selected.”
The program costs $135,000 a year to bring two medical residents to Cornwall each year. Each resident will spend six months working in Cornwall’s Emergency Room.
Councillor Eric Bergeron asked if this would mean shorter wait times at the CCH ER.
“What we can say is that more doctors will see more people,” Amy Gillespie, Executive Director of the CCHF. “More doctors is always a good thing to help us out.”
For the first year, the CCH has offered to match the City’s $50,000, in future years, the CCHF will be raising the matching funds.
“Any funds collected over the goal will go back into equipment for patients,” said Gillespie. “This is a guaranteed pipeline. It guarantees at least eight years of service to our community.”
Council suspended their usual rules and did away with waiting for a report from administration on funding the program.
“We have a good reserve, we have a need in our community, so why do we need a report to tell us what we already know,” said Councillor Glen Grant.
Council voted unanimously to offer $50,000 in funding for three years to the program.
[…] RELATED: CCHF asks for $50K a year for Adopt a Medical Resident program […]