Saugeen Shores council has passed a bylaw that will see Dr. Robert LeBlanc take over the existing practices of Doctors Dee Brown and Kirk Hollohan, who have left the area and that spells good news for some orphaned patients.
Town CAO Larry Allison says about 1,700 patients will now be under the care of Dr. LeBlanc.
Allison says Dr. LeBlanc has also agreed to maintain a reduced commitment to the emergency room at Saugeen Memorial Hospital in Southampton.
Dr. LeBlanc was signed on with the town originally to focus on emergency room work only but council has agreed a change needed to be made.
Allison says they will be adding resources to the ER over the course of the summer and he hopes on balance, things will continue on as they have been.
However, Allison points out we’re not out of the woods yet.
He says there is still a large number of orphaned patients in the municipality what with the pending retirement of Dr. Ralph Suke.
Dr. LeBlanc will be using the space in the Port Elgin clinic formerly occupied by Drs. Hollohan and Brown.
Those patients who will be left without a family doctor are advised to fill out an online form on the town’s website as they re-establish an orphan patient list.
Allison says they hope to get patients re-deployed as soon as possible.
