Hundreds of family doctors in Ontario recognized by patients for outstanding service
CBC
It all started with a simple prompt for Ontario patients: "Tell us how your family doctor has gone above and beyond for you."
Now, hundreds of family doctors in across the province are being recognized by patients for outstanding service and to highlight a continued need for close doctor-patient relationships.
It's all part of a Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) campaign to highlight the essential role of family doctors.
Kolleen McCaughan, from Newmarket, Ont., was one of thousands of patients who responded to the call.
Ten years ago, McCaughan was diagnosed with breast cancer. She credits her family doctor, Dr. Earl Schwartz, for catching it early.
"It was caught through a routine mammogram," she told CBC Toronto. "Dr. Schwartz is big on doing your yearly physical routine test. It wouldn't have been caught otherwise."
Schwartz also helped McCaughan secure a cochlear implant for her hearing in 2011 and has served as a family doctor to much of her husband's family for around 40 years, she said.
That all factored into why she felt the need to nominate him for recognition.
"He goes that extra mile for patients," McCaughan said. "He listens to them. He validates them."
Schwartz is one of 750 family physicians — 91 from the Toronto area — being recognized as part of the OCFP Life with a Doctor advocacy campaign that began in April 2022.
In a news release, the OCFP explained that patients "expressed gratitude for their family doctors, who played a crucial role in managing complex illnesses like dementia, caring for seniors, offering compassionate postpartum and mental health support, and even saved the life of a loved one."
Dr. Jobin Varughese, president of the OCFP, told CBC Toronto that local ceremonies have been held across the province to award many of the nominated doctors.
At a time when 2.5 million Ontario residents still don't have a family doctor, it's crucial to honour the ones going above the call of duty, he said.
"There's many different areas that a family doctor intersects with patient's lives," Varughese said. "Whether it's in pregnancy and births, in illness, in death and in all places, the family doctor really provides a great place for someone to go to, to learn what they need to do and what resources are available."
Christy Morin says life was never the same in Alberta Avenue after the fires began.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.