Queen’s University Opens Medical Centre in Belleville

Published on: 2010/06/23 - in News

This week, the Queen’s University School of Medicine officially opened a state-of-the-art medical centre to serve as an academic home to family medicine residents.

Funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the facility is part of a $6.6 million expansion of the university’s family medicine residency program, with the University providing $1 million towards its capital cost.

Dr. David Walker, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, has described the centre as building on Queen’s long-standing tradition of community-based family medicine training programs that will further solidifying the University’s presence as a regional School of Medicine.

To serve communities from Oshawa to Ottawa with quality healthcare, the family medicine residents from Queen’s will spend their two years of training at the Belleville Queen’s Family Medicine Centre.

Earlier this week, residents, physicians and representatives of the Queen’s School of Medicine, the South East Local Health Integration Network, and the city of Belleville celebrated the Centre’s opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the facility.

“The Centre will be a tremendous addition to Belleville and the Quinte area,” says Dr. Jonathan Kerr, the Centre’s curriculum lead. “Our enthusiastic, dedicated group of family doctors will be working alongside keen, energetic family medicine residents from Queen’s to provide outstanding family medicine care to our patients. By focusing on preventative care and chronic disease management, the Centre will provide more people with their own family doctor which will shorten wait times in local emergency rooms or walk-in clinics.”

The two story 12,000-square-foot centre features 22 high-tech exam rooms and a minor procedure room, electronic medical records, the latest medical equipment,  and will have free parking for its patients.

The Centre currently houses five family physicians and two general surgeons, with two more family doctors scheduled to join over the next year and capacity for further expansion in the future.

Queen’s family medicine residency program has also recently expanded to Oshawa and Peterborough.

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Photo source: Queen’s University News Centre