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New doctor slated to start at GMH this fall

  • August 18 2021
  • By Lois Ann Dort, Local Journalism Initiative reporter    

GUYSBOROUGH – News that Guysborough residents had long been waiting for arrived via a Facebook post on Aug. 15 from the Guysborough Memorial Hospital Foundation: “a new family physician joining our hospital and family practice starting this fall.”

The foundation has been working for years to recruit doctors for the hospital, which has only one full-time physician at a facility that should have four.

The new doctor is based in the U.K. She has been considering the position in Guysborough for months, and had given a verbal commitment, but it was only last week that a contract was signed allowing for the announcement, Bill Innis, chair of the hospital foundation, told The Journal on Aug. 15.

The new physician will be able to cover the emergency department, office practice and nursing home. Innis said that while they were in discussion with her prior to the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) offering a $100,000 incentive to recruit doctors to the area, she was made aware of that additional bonus when it was brought to the table.

She’s done a virtual tour of the facility and the area. But while Innis said those aspects of the offer are compelling, it’s the new doctor’s friendship with Dr. Adeola Opeyemi Adeyeye, whose been filling locum positions at the hospital over the past year, that was perhaps the most convincing argument in favour of relocating to Guysborough.

Innis said he thinks the positive recommendation coming from someone outside of the community, who has experience working in it, was great, adding, “She [Dr. Adeola] felt that the new doctor would be very happy here.”

While everyone is pleased to hear that recruitment efforts are finally bearing fruit, Innis remains “cautiously optimistic that this will come through. We still have an immigration process to go through. This isn’t a done deal yet; it’s close.”

MODG Warden Vernon Pitts said of the announcement, “That’s the best news I’ve heard all year… I’m really going to look forward to writing that cheque [$100,000 physician incentive] and I hope we have to write five more before we’re all done.”