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The Ocs’ 5 ~DP “liked the variety and chal- lenge of family medicine,” he remembers of the decision to become a General Practitioner. “Tt allows me to treat the ‘en- tire person.’ “Talso have the privilege of seeing multiple generations of the same family. Five generations in one case right now! When I examine the eldest, I see evidence of my grandfather’s impeccable surgical work, and that’s really special.” Graduation saw John begin two years in Kitchener emergency rooms. Usu- ally, a doctor will divide time between a practice and ER duty, but John’s work was done entirely in the emergency room. He looks back on the expe- Dr. John Stewart 1981 rience p . “figured if I could do John fit Medical ‘the deep end,’ I’d be ready for Associates basic anything.” came calling. At a family gathering, a chance conversation revealed that Port Perry’s newly-formed Medical Associates was seeking to add to its three-person staff. John ft the clinic’s basic require- ent, an interest and. capability in all areas of medicine. And it its location fit him. “I wanted to be closer to family than Kitchener,” he remembers. “Port Perry was perfect.” Each doctor on Medical Associates’ roster needed broad knowledge, so that all would be interchangeable. And each requirement - an interest and capability in all areas of medicine. had to offer something unique. InJohn’s case, | his interest in long-term care would provide the clinic with that addi- tional skill. So began a lifetime association, both with Medical Associates and with the community’s nursing hom« Time passed and. ash Mes Associates prospered, John’s practice grew. Th ienced doctor received an invitation to sit ona provincial ‘review panel. The oppor- tunity would, in his words, change his As a teenager, | saw my itn the eatly 90s, dad working odd hours, the Ontario govern. _ being on-call, and told oie euiaalnes myself: ‘I'll never do that’ for the appropriate use of antibiotics,” he recalls. “I learned that the Ministry's long-term plan would link pharmacies to a central database, and require a physician’s diagnosis for each prescription. Where the diagnosis didn’t match their guidelines, OHIP would reject the patient's claim. “1 felt strongly this was an invasion of privacy. The government's strategy also implied that we doctors were at fault for overuse and misuse of antibiotics. I raised my concerns to the Deputy Minister, who wouldn't budge. So 1 vowed to take it one step further and prove their approach wrong.” John spearheaded a three-pronged initiative to do just that, using Port Perry for his study area. Across-the-board. education would prove the key to its success. Doctors, pharmacists, and patients would receive a consistent mes- sage, delivered ina concentrated time frame. “We targeted an overall reduction in antibiotic pre- scriptions. As well, we counselled the medical profession- Since beginning this series on The Docs’, we have received many positive comments about the feature, including how much our readers look forward to future articles. In addition we've received a few inquiries as to why we have not written about some of Port Perry's former hard working physicians. Those who provided Featuring ‘The Docs’ of today - not of an earlier time! health care for the community prior to the formation of Medical Associates. As explained in our lead-off article - The Docs’ feature is designed to introduce the ‘current crop’ of doctors practicing in Port Perry to the residents of the com- munity. This is not meant, in any way, to diminish the importance of those who came before - and there were many. Dr. Samuel Mellow, Dr. David Archer, Dr. Robert Archer, Dr. George Rennie, Dr. MB. Dymond and more recently Dr. Ralph Price, just to mention a very few. So, for the time being, we will con- tinue to spotlight the physicians - men and women - who provide health care to the Scugog community today. 16 FOCUS - APRIL 2010