Four New Physicians to Join Family Health Team

GREATER SUDBURY - The City of Lakes Family Health Team (CoLFHT) announced today that four new family physicians have agreed to join their team.

The physicians, currently completing a Family Medicine Residency at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, are as follows: Dr. Sarah Duncan, Dr. Katherine Gasparini, Dr. Liisa Levasseur and Dr. Monica Susil.

"I am so pleased that these four young physicians have chosen to establish a practice in our community", said Dr. Tom Crichton. "It is a tribute to their commitment to the north as well as to the vision of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to address the physician shortage in our community." Dr. Crichton is the CoLFHT's lead physician and Assistant Dean of Family Medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

Their arrival to the team will coincide with the opening of a new Family Health Team clinic in Walden. In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care approved a CoLFHT proposal to open four clinics across the City of Greater Sudbury. Two existing clinics are located in Sudbury and Val Caron.

Future clnical sites have been identified in Walden and Chelmsford. The Walden clinic is targeted to open in 2010 pending capital funding approval by City Council and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. "Family Health Teams are improving the delivery of primary health care in Greater Sudbury and across Ontario."  said MPP Rick Bartolucci. "I welcome these new physicians who will work to provide the best, most comprehensive care to the people of Walden."

"This is great news for thousands of people across our community who are currently without a family physician."  said Dr. Chris McKibbon, Chair of the CoLFHT Board of Directors. "Locating another clinic in the outlying area of the City will make primary healthcare more accessible for those patients." The Walden clinic will be located in the former Town of Walden municipal building located at 25 Black Lake Road. The property is owned by the City of Greater Sudbury.

The City of Lakes Family Health Team is an interdisciplinary team of family physicians and health care professionals working collaboratively to provide comprehensive primary health care services to their patients.

Family Health Teams are key component of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's plan to build a health care system that delivers on three priorities - keeping Ontarians healthy, reducing wait times and providing better access to the physicians and nurses.

Unattached patients seeking a family physician should not contact the Family Health Team or its physicians until the Walden clinic has been opened in 2010.