Such as the use of “wee” as in Dr. Fox explaining that he resides in “a wee cottage in Kildare.”
Now that he has committed to a full-time practice in Tignish, the affable physician imagines more of his Irish expressions will rub off on his patients.
Fox, a locum in West Prince on a fairly regular basis since 2000, started seeing patients at the Tignish Co-op Health Center in November, 2013. He moved his practice there in March and, before returning to P.EI. from his summer vacation in Ireland, decided to become a full-time member of the West Prince medical staff.
His decision is welcomed by his patients.
“He’s very compassionate,” assessed Tignish resident Anna Iwankiewicz. “He understands what a person is going through.”
Iwankiewicz admits the doctor’s commitment to the area restores patients’ peace of mind. That’s something that was lacking since Dr. Baldev Sethi’s retirement in 2012 after a busy 37-year practice in the community.
He acknowledges he’s been hearing a lot of ‘so glad you’re here’ comments from his patients. ‘I think the community was pretty happy to have somebody
Although full-time status is effective October 1, Fox resumed his practice at the health center on Thursday, September 11.
“I got to like the place,” Fox said in describing one of the key considerations in his decision to “hang up my shingle” in Tignish. The people, he said, were his number one consideration. “They’re lovely people to work with.”
The Health Center has renovated the clinic area and added a third examining room helping to improve patient flow.
Another key consideration, he admits, is the independence that comes with being the only family physician at the clinic.
“This place is probably more suitable for an older physician,” said Fox, suggesting younger physicians, because of the nature of their training, tend to gravitate to facilities where there are lots of other physicians around.
Fox agrees his wife, Deirdre McMahon’s decision to move to Kildare from Ireland made it easier for him to commit to full-time work here. Their daughter, Claire Fox’s decision to do a University College of London one-year exchange program in Ontario helped bring the whole family to Canada. They have applied for Canadian citizenship and are sponsored in that process through the Provincial Nominee Program.
“I will be here quite a bit of the time, at least the next few years,” he announced.
But Fox is not alone in his Tignish practice. He has two nurses who can assess patients and do some of the preliminary and follow-up work, saving him time and enabling him to see more patients. The configuration, he said, is based on Health P.E.I.’s standard for clinics.
He pays rent to the health center and the salaries of the two nurses. He will also help train nurse practitioners.
In addition to his regular office hours in Tignish, Fox will do four shifts a month in Western Hospital’s emergency department and take turns caring for the hospital’s inpatients.
The 60 year-old physician, who graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1979 and has practiced in Baghdad, Ireland and England, said his ambition in Tignish is to “try to do things to make the practice attractive to professionals after I’m gone.”
He plans to place more emphasis on chronic illness like diabetes, heart disease and COPD. He has special interest in mental illness, including training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and believes that training influences his approach to his patients.
Now that he is here full-time, he hopes to explore this province more. He hopes to do more biking and has an interest in sailing.
