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how a corner brook family doctor built a practice that's helping thousands of patients
8 minute read
the wellness family practice in corner brook opened 10 years ago in march, 2016. today, its five doctors, from left, dr. sinead mercier, dr. shanda slipp, dr. ryan jackman, dr. perry osborne and dr. rebecca lethbridge provide care to around 4,000 patients.
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ten years ago, dr. shanda slipp returned to newfoundland and was looking to set up a family practice in corner brook.
she joined forces with dr. danielle colbourne and formed the wellness family practice under the umbrella of what is now the veitch wellness centre.
back then, technology-wise things were pretty dire, and when it came to how many people were without a family doctor, slipp said nobody knew the number.
“there was no list. there was no patient connect. western health didn’t keep a list. there were estimates of how many people didn’t have family doctors, but there were no lists,” she said.
“there were a couple of family doctors that were retiring around that time, but no one leaving that we could just take their practice fully.”
dr. shanda slipp opened the wellness family practice in corner brook in march 2016. contributed
instead of opening up and inviting potential patients to come in person, slipp and colbourne set up a phone line for people without a doctor to call in on a set day to be added to their patient roster.
they hadn’t hired staff yet, so unbeknownst to the callers, it was the two doctors who answered the calls.
“and it was crazy. like, it was bonkers,” said slipp.
“the stories people told you, it was very humbling. people would say they had sat there for three hours and hit redial, redial, redial, and like hundreds of calls, and once they got through, it was like they were winning the lottery.”
she said the stories didn’t make a difference, as they were going to take the people who got through until they were at capacity.
“but they would tell you how long they hadn’t had a family doctor, or they had cancer, or they’d just had a baby or a kid who was sick,” she said.
through those phone calls, they took about 1,000 patients, and added from there by taking the callers’ families and some from a waitlist.
they opened their doors in a small space in the aylward building on union street in march 2016.
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growth
as veitch expanded its multidisciplinary clinic and moved to a building o’connell drive, the wellness family practice went with it.
there are now 4,000 patients who are cared for and supported by five doctors and three medical office assistants.
colbourne relocated to st. john’s within the first year, and dr. rebecca lethbridge took over her practice.
dr. perry osborne then moved in from baie verte and took on some new patients from the clinic’s waitlist. a number of his patients from baie verte also followed him and commute to corner brook when they need to see him.
dr. rebecca lethbridge is one of five doctors at the wellness family practice in corner brook. contributed
a couple of years later dr. sinead mercier and dr. ryan jackman joined the practice.
the five doctors work well together, and if someone is working in the hospital or away, the others will cover for them, monitoring their inbox, seeing urgent patients and dealing with anything that needs to be followed up.
“that really is what prevents burnout and helps you stay afloat,” said slipp.
“you can never switch off in community family medicine, but at least when you’re in a team or you have colleagues that you really trust, then you can do that a little bit more and cover for each other. unfortunately, that’s becoming not as common in family medicine.”
as part of the veitch family, the wellness family practice has access to a number of other health professionals, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, psychologists, orthopedic surgeons, obstetricians and general surgeons. there’s also a pharmacy on site.
it’s an informal team approach, but one that enables them to collaborate on patient care.
dr. perry osborne moved from baie verte to join the wellness family practice in corner brook. contributed
the state of family medicine
while her clinic is thriving, slipp said there are issues within the health-care system and, in particular, in family medicine.
“family medicine is in trouble in general in the province,” she said.
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“we’re seeing lower numbers of students choosing family medicine. we’re seeing a lot of our family medicine grads not choosing community comprehensive practice. they’re working in the system, but they’re often taking jobs in the emergency room, in the hospital—very important roles, but frankly, roles that sometimes pay more and they don’t have the same overhead and burden of running a practice. it’s harder to do our job than it ever used to be.”
that’s partly because of the aging population, with people getting older and getting sicker. there’s also more medications than ever that doctors have to know about.
patients are not the only ones aging—currently, 19 per cent of family physicians are over the age of 60.
slipp said these family doctors are going to retire soon, and new family doctors can’t sustain the same volume of practice. it’s estimated it will take 1.33 physicians to replace every one physician who is over 60 based on practice size.
“the new recruits, the new grads, the new people in community family medicine, are not able to keep up with that demand,” said slipp.
“we have already a huge patient population that doesn’t have primary care, doesn’t have a family doctor, and that situation is only going to get worse.”
there’s also less support, with longer waitlists for consultants and tests than there ever has been.
the cost of doing business is also higher, and that overhead just to keep the doors open is always an issue and concern for community family doctors, said slipp.
added to that are the demands on doctors’ time outside of actually seeing patients to do paperwork and administrative work.
it’s a huge burden, she said. on average, she said, 19 hours a month are spent on non-clinical work.
“so, it’s just harder to do the job, and there’s lots of supports that we need,” she said.
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that includes help with overhead expenses and the administrative burden.
the wellness family practice’s medical office assistants – nancy park, left, melina murphy and linda burton – play an important role in patient care. contributed
she said hospitals are overflowing and are constantly full, and emergency room visits are high.
“part of the reason for that, i would argue, is that we are lacking in family medicine and community primary care,” she said.
“and so, we’re not doing very good at keeping people out of hospital, and there’s lots of evidence that having a continuous family doctor for a long time makes you healthier and keeps you out of hospital and actually costs the system less.”
what’s needed to fix things?
slipp also serves as the director of external engagement with the newfoundland and labrador college of family physicians.
through that role, she’s trying to advocate for family medicine in general, and especially for community family medicine.
one thing she thinks would help is if there were more multidisciplinary team-based clinics in addition to the family care teams that are being set up around the province by nl health services.
“the family care teams that we do have are very well intentioned, and they’re meant to solve a problem of attaching more patients, providing care for more patients, but they are doing it at a rate that i think is very expensive, and some of those numbers are starting to come out,” she said.
“and they are also doing it in a way that’s very slow and potentially not really functioning as they were intended to function.”
she said the team approach has to be extended.
“so that not only in the family care teams do you get this potentially cadillac service of allied health, and your family doctor and lots of services, but that we need that in community clinics as well, and those of us that are still here doing the job deserve that, and our patients do, too,” she added.
the wellness family practice in corner brook is a teaching clinic, where future doctors work and learn alongside the doctors at the practice. from left are dr. hannah lane, a family medicine resident, dr. sinead mercier, (standing) a doctor with the practice, and third-year medical student haley kawaja. contributed
positive things happening
while there are a lot of negative things happening in health care, slipp said there are also a lot of positives.
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one big one for wellness family practice is the role it plays in training future doctors.
as one of the main teaching sites outside of st. john’s, over 200 learners have gone through there in 10 years. they may not all choose family medicine, but slipp said they try to give them a good experience.
the clinic is also involved in training family medicine residents in the western zone.
“we’re known as a teaching site that is kind of sought after. people want to come here and have a good experience,” she said.
there have also been inroads in technology over the last 10 years.
as a pilot site, slipp said the clinic was one of the first in the province to use electronic medical records.
corcare, the new health information system being launched by nl health services in april, will provide access to patient records across the province.
the clinic is also part of a pilot project with the health authority in the western zone that provides procedure supplies to community clinics.
in the eastern zone, there is a pilot where social workers and different supports have been embedded in community clinics.
family practice networks are also providing doctors with more support, giving them the opportunity to collaborate and providing them with more continuing medical education opportunities.
third-year medical student haley kawaja, left, is learning from doctors like dr. ryan jackman at the wellness family practice in corner brook. contributed
wouldn’t pick any other career
when asked what keeps her motivated to stick with it, slipp laughs and says that’s a question she’s asked every day.
“i wouldn’t trade it for anything. i wouldn’t pick any different career. i’m exactly where i’m supposed to be,” she said.
“i think, for me, i love family medicine. i’m very passionate about it, a very big advocate for it, because i think it is the best. because there’s no career where you can sort of have this longitudinal relationship for many, many years.
“family doctors have stories where they’ve delivered a patient, and then they deliver that patient’s children, or you have kids that you’ve seen grow up, you can remember when the mom was pregnant.”
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then there’s the satisfaction that comes with helping patients.
“you see people through highs and lows and cancer diagnoses and the worst and the best, and you truly feel like you can help people over a long period of time,” she said.
“so, it’s very rewarding. i don’t take it lightly. it’s a big responsibility and a big privilege to be able to look after people and to know people at the depths that we get to know people.”
this article was originally published in the st. john’s telegram on march 30, 2026.
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