Southwest Middlesex Health Centre, Mount Brydges

Dr. Jennifer Parr is an east coaster who has settled in Southwestern Ontario. After growing up in small town New Brunswick, she didn’t venture far to complete her med school at Dalhousie in Nova Scotia.  Afterwards, she wanted to experience another part of the country so she came to Mount Brydges for her Western Rural Family Medicine Residency. She and her husband loved the area so much they decided to stay and put down roots.  

Dr. Parr has been practicing comprehensive family medicine, including office-based, inpatient hospital care, nursing home care and home palliative care in the Mount Brydges-Strathroy area since 2002. She has been working at the Southwest Middlesex Health Centre since graduating from the program in 2002 and she became the Centre Director in 2020.  She is a past Rural-Regional Program Director for Family Medicine at Western.  Dr Parr is currently on the Board of Directors for the Thames Valley Family Health Team.

TRAINING SITE/PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

Southwest Middlesex Health Centre (SWMHC) is situated 25 kilometers from the centre of London in a scenic area of farmland near Mount Brydges, Ontario. It was established as a teaching site in 1974. The clinic is staffed by five physicians who are associated with the Department of Family Medicine at Western University. There is a strong emphasis on the team approach, with involvement of family practice nurses in patient care. There is a strong rural "hands-on", and culturally-sensitive flavour to the learning opportunities at SWMHC. SWMHC is a Family Health Network and part of the Thames Valley Family Health Team.

PATIENT PROFILE

The centre serves people from the surrounding villages of Mount Brydges, Delaware, Komoka, Strathroy, and the First Nations communities of Oneida (Onyota'cka), Muncey and Chippewa. The population of the area provides a representative mixture typical of rural areas in Ontario. The ethnic diversity as well as the stability of the practice population provides a broad cultural and age range to challenge physicians who train at SWMHC.

INTERESTS OF FACULTY

• Emergency medicine
• Primary care procedures
• Palliative Care
• Hospitalist/ Acute inpatient family medicine
• Nursing home care
• Family medicine research
• Medical education

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

• Faculty to resident ratio: 1:2
• Emergency medicine: Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital
• Hospital care: Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital
• Palliative care: Patients’ homes and Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital
• Family Medicine Obstetrics: Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital
• Elderly care: Office, nearby long-term care facility
• Procedural room on-site (x2)
• House calls are part of regular patient care
• Academic activities:
  • Teaching session every Wednesday morning (9 a.m. - 12 p.m.) and Thursday afternoon (1:30 - 2:30 p.m.)
• Mental health care: Residents may participate in care concurrently with psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse clinician
• Visiting specialists - monthly - OBGyn, Endrocrinologist (Residents each spend 1/2 day with each over the course of their FM time)

RESOURCES ON-SITE

• Electronic Medical Records (Accuro)
• Two fully-equipped procedural rooms for office-based minor surgical procedures and casting
• Laboratory services, including ECGs
• Two pharmacists and pharmacy
• Shared Mental Health Care Program: a psychiatrist and a nurse clinician provide on site consultations one day per week
• Full time social worker and part time dietitian, OT, RT, Footcare RN through Family Health Team
• Physiotherapy clinic onsite
• Dental clinic on site

TYPICAL WEEK FOR RESIDENT