A man originally from Deloraine is returning home to open a family physician practice in August.

Dr. Alexander McKinnon grew up in Deloraine before moving away to further his studies in New Brunswick, Ontario and Winnipeg. He has spent the past two years working in a family practice in Prince Edward Island.

He and his wife Meghan have decided to move closer to family and that started the process of Dr. McKinnon connecting with Prairie Mountain Health (PMH).

“Deloraine is my favourite place in the world to be honest with you. It’s home of my family, The Royals and all my buddies. So it has been in the back of my mind to be part of the community because it gave so much to me through sports and academics."

Dr. McKinnon looks forward to giving back to his hometown and providing a service that is badly needed in rural areas. He plans to start taking patients sometime in August but isn’t sure of the exact date he’ll start his family practice.

As for the timing of his family’s decision he says it’s about the need to make the move as his family is growing. “We have a 2-and-a-half-year-old son and without any family around it’s quite a bit for my wife and myself. We found we’re having another one in October so we definitely need family around and to be closer to cousins,” said McKinnon.

“I reached out to PMH about the recruitment, and they were awesome to expedite it and to remove any barriers to coming home. We kept in touch and when we found out baby number two was on the way that sped up the process. I reached out to the health region recruiter and said what can we do to make this happen within the next two years and she said how about the next two months.”

 

Dr. Mckinnon looks forward to working back in his hometown but realizes it will be different from where’s he’s practicing right now. “I did a weekend locum at Christmas to help out and to just see how things operate. Where I am now you can see up to 60 to 70 acute cases a day which is quite busy and from my time in Deloraine you weren’t seeing that volume.”

Deloraine has two other doctors and McKinnon looks forward to joining the practice and working to fit in to the system.

“This is a partnership with the community. I’m excited I can move home, and they can help me out and I mean that very genuinely. Having family around, having friends around and knowing the school system and knowing your neighbours. I’m thrilled to be going home.”