Mark Bemment

In the time that I had left Killarney, there have been substantial changes, due to the physician retention crisis and consequential challenging landscape of rural medicine.

With only 2 physicians coverage has been challenging.

However, a new Emergency Room has been built and is imminently opening, with the intention of centralization into a hub.

I commenced a 12 month Family Practice Anesthesia residency.

This was an intense learning curve of which I got a huge amount out of. Ultimately, for a mixture of personal and professional reasons I did not complete this residency.

Returning from my fellowship I worked as a family physician in a number of locations, both within Manitoba and Nunavut

Taking a break from regular clinical practice, I undertook a short 3 month Emergency Medicine Fellowship at the University of Toronto: https://www.semedfcm.com, with the intention of returning to Practice in Manitoba in January 2022.

Marketed to provide family physicians the comprehensive skills needed to work in rural communities, I benefited from excellent weekly academic study days combined with rotations through busy Emergency Departments(Mount Sinai(MSH), St Michael's and Etobicoke General Hospital)

• Combined Clinic, Personal Care Facility and 26 bed Acute Hospital with 24/7 open Emergency Room, with approximately 5000 visits per year.
• On-Call group of 4.5 doctors, doing about 8 shifts per month.
• Broad range of medical, pediatric and acute traumatic emergency.
• Referral centres are 1 hour and 3 hours away and accessed by road or air.

I worked in a valued multidisciplinary team to provide comprehensive care.

Working in a resource limited setting, the learning curve was steep at times, but I've also learnt that a lot can be done with a little.

I have recognized the need to improve my skill set, but also how we work together as a team in the Resuscitation Room.

I continued to advocate for, and work with the Regional Health Authority to improve the skills and resources of our team. I worked closely with RHA's outreach nursing educator, and facilitated a fantastic 2 day mobile education experience provided, in our facility, by STARS.ca.

I introduced Point of Care Ultrasound into my practice with formal certification from the University of Manitoba and ongoing collaboration and support from our onsite Departmental Ultrasound.

Scanning is an ongoing journey of which has huge benefits is aiding timely diagnosis particularly in environments where advanced imaging modalities are unavailable.

Initially employed as a salaried GP, I became an equity partner in 2012 until my departure.

Working in a group of 4 Primary Care Providers, we managed a community of 7500 National Health Service patients providing office based function. We had 30 staff and in house Dispensary(Pharmacy).

We achieved a Good Rating from the Care Quality Commission in 2016.

During my time I represented our practice on our local Clinical Commissioning Group and additionally worked as Dispensing Lead.

I learnt the importance of vision, negotiation and leadership in the complex relationships of our practice and the NHS.