Community Spotlight: Fisher Family Primary Care Centre (Listowel)
Listowel is a rapidly growing community in the Municipality of North Perth. North Perth is home to 15,500 residents, which has grown by nearly 20 per cent in the last five years. With roots in agriculture, this small town is experiencing economic growth as an affordable place to live and work.
The Fischer Family Primary Care Centre is under renovation to meet the growing needs of the Family Health Organization and Family Health Team. The medical care team is focused on family and community health.
The North Perth Family Health Team and Listowel Clinic are pleased to host medical students and resident physicians from Western University and beyond. Learners in our community participate in patient care in the family medicine clinic, hospital ward, obstetrical ward, and emergency department, with varying degrees of independence. A number of our recently recruited family doctors spent time in our community as learners. Our local doctors are proud to be involved in all aspects of medical education, and helping to train the next generation of Canada's health care providers.
I've been in practice since 2015, starting as a hospitalist in Brantford, while my wife finished her training in the GP anesthesia program. We settled in summer of 2016 in Listowel where I started my family practice. I added the nursing home a few months later, and took over as the lead for education in 2019. I've been teaching since I started in 2015, with faculty appointments through McMaster and Western.
In 2017 I started an allergy clinic with the goal of testing and de-labeling patients with erroneous penicillin allergy labels. It has been surprisingly rewarding work, and I was able to publish my experience in 2021 in the CMAJ Open. It has given me opportunities to speak at local conferences in Kitchener, Collingwood, and Stratford.
One of my long-term goals has been starting a residency program, and we had our first full-time family medicine resident start last July; she’s slated to graduate June 2025. It's been super rewarding, and a lot of work connecting with the hospital, foundation, municipality, recruitment committee, and of course medical community.
From 2020 to 2025, I was also the medical staff president for our hospital. I have been working over the last two years to start a hospitalist program in Listowel, which is just about to reach its first anniversary in September. When my colleague retired this May, I took over as medical director of the nursing home, and have been inundating the staff with new quality improvement ideas--maybe too many!
At 10 years in practice, I still really enjoy the variety--like the odd day as surgical assist, or my twice a month clinic to do circumcisions. I'm enjoying house calls, palliative care, and dementia care through our new MINT Memory Clinic.
Personally, I'm Dad before Doctor. My boys are seven and five, and loving soccer this summer, so we're playing or practicing five nights a week. My wife and I love to travel, and the opportunity to show our sons different parts of the world.
Dr. Derek Gateman
MD CCFP
