Killarney-Turtle Mountain council was thrilled with Wednesday's news that Dr. Dominic Hennessy will be joining the Killarney medical team this year.  

"Dr. Hennessy is from England and has just given notice to his practice in the U.K," shares Mayor Janice Smith.  "That's a 6-week notice that he has to give and then he will be making his way to Killarney!"

"In the meantime, though, he has offered to take some of his holidays during the summer months here in Killarney where he will help the clinic and the hospital for their lean times to cover some holidays and things like that for the other doctors" she adds. "So, coming in the summertime will allow him to find a place to live, set up bank accounts, maybe even buy a vehicle so that he's all ready to go when he arrives again at the end of the year!"

Smith says council members enjoyed meeting Dr. Hennessy when he came out for a visit last summer to Killarney on a site visit.  "He is a very gentle, personable, caring man and I think he's going to fit into this community just wonderfully!"

The good news continues with three new doctors being profiled by Prairie Mountain Health for the Tri-Lake Health Centre.  The Killarney clinic can have a complement of 5 doctors, and the search continues with three more potential doctors found through their recruitment company, Waterford Global.

"We just got some profiles for 3 more candidates and those all sounded very interesting," shares Mayor Smith. "It will start with a video interview and if we feel strong enough that they're a great candidate then we'll ask for a site visit."

Last summer three potential candidates travelled from the U.K. for a site visit to Killarney, resulting in two of the three signing the contracts with PMH.   "Killarney is going to be very fortunate because we are going to have a perfect complement of really great doctors!"

Mayor Smith says the next site visits will most likely take place in the winter as our Manitoba snow and cold can make newcomers to the prairies a little nervous.

"It seems our winters may be a bit of a scary thing for these people who are not used to our climate," she says.  "This past winter would have been a good winter to come, right?  We didn't really have much of a winter at all!" she laughs.

Smith adds they are keeping doctor recruitment as a budgetary item to continue the relationship with Waterford Global and be able to step back into the process of recruitment should the need arise.

In the meantime, the search is on to fill the remaining position with three more contenders in the works!