Three doctors accepting patients at Cambrian clinic

Three of Sudbury's newest family doctors have started a practice at Cambrian College.

Dr. Natasha St-Onge, Dr. Sean Sullivan, and Dr. Morgan Carrier – all recent Northern Ontario School of Medicine graduates, who completed their residencies earlier in the year, are accepting patients of all ages out of their office on the Cambrian campus.

“We get to see a mix of students and our own private practice,” said St-Onge, who grew up in Chelmsford and decided to return to Sudbury after completing her residency in North Bay. “It gives us a real breadth of patients to see.”

Each doctor has set aside a half-day each week for Cambrian students and staff, but the rest of their schedules are dedicated to their own patients.

The students in particular, who often have family doctors in their hometowns, have the advantage of seeing the same doctor on a walk-in basis while in Sudbury.

St-Onge said she hopes to eventually have 1,000 to 1,200 patients.

Sullivan, who grew up in Chelmsford, said he's also aiming to accept up to 1,200 patients.

When he started medical school, he wanted to pursue psychiatry or pediatrics, but in his fourth year he got to work with a number of elderly patients.

“It had a big impact on me as a doctor,” he said.

To help a wider variety of patients, Sullivan decided to start a practice with his peers and enter family medicine.

He said prospective patients should sign up with the provincial service Health Care Connect if they want a spot with their clinic, or any other family doctor in Sudbury.

“I'm always surprised by the number of people who don't have a family doctor and aren't registered on Health Care Connect,” Sullivan said. “If they're not on the list, the chances of miraculously finding (a doctor) are very low.”

While the clinic's setting on campus might give the impression it caters to younger patients, Sullivan said he and his colleagues want to treat a wide variety of patients in their private practices.

He said they ask the province to provide them a balance of older and younger people when they send in patient lists through Health Care Connect.

“In a perfect world, all those complicated patients would be taken right off the top, but if you had a practice with 1,000 complicated patients it would be incredibly difficult,” Sullivan said. “You need a variety.”