Tempo met with spokespersons from the Knowlton Medical Clinic and the CIUSSS (Integrated Centre for Health and Social Services) of the Estrie region to get the latest word on three issues of great concern to many Town of Brome Lake residents. Here are their answers:

Tempo – Is the Clinic still searching for one or two more doctors to meet the needs of hundreds of patients waiting for a family doctor in TBL?

Knowlton Clinic – We are still searching for doctors. We think that our recent hiring of Dr. Roper, combined with the upcoming arrival of a nurse practitioner, will attract another doctor. We would like to have two, but that would be very difficult to justify to higher authorities. We met with four doctors in the last six months who were interested. It is the responsibility of the CIUSSS to promote our needs to the Ministry so that Estrie will attract additional doctors based on our regional plan.

CIUSSS Estrie – The territorial board decided to prioritize your area to receive a bursary in order to install another family doctor, to create additional incentive to draw another one to Brome Lake.

Tempo – When does Knowlton Medical Clinic expect another nurse practitioner to come? Several different arrival dates have been sent to Tempo over the last few months.

Knowlton Clinic – We expect the arrival to occur in the summer of 2021.

Tempo – Have the former patients of Dr. Barakett and Dr. Barbeau been taken over partially by other doctors of the Knowlton Clinic?

Knowlton Clinic – We have registered approximately 530 of their former patients here at the clinic. We have concentrated our efforts on registering patients coming from Knowlton and West Bolton. Moreover, we had to redirect former patients of Dr. Barakett and Dr. Barbeau coming from other areas to apply for services in their respective territories. So it is impossible to know how many “orphan patients” of these two doctors have been integrated into other clinics.

Translated by Tam Davis