ROMP Week 2017!
“ROMP Week is a one week elective experience offered to pre-clerkship medical students during their summer break. The goal of ROMP Week is to offer medical students “hands-on” clinical experiences by exposing them to medical practices outside the academic centre and to highlight the unique lifestyle offered by the community in which they are staying. The week is coordinated by the Rural Ontario Medical Program (ROMP), who enlists volunteer communities to host between two and ten medical students during one of the designated weeks. The clinical experiences offered during ROMP Week range from talks given by health professionals, clinics to gain experience with skills such
as casting and suturing, and half or full day rotations with different physicians in the community. By organizing events that encourage the medical students to socialize with the physicians and health care providers, the learners are able to gain an understanding of practicing medicine in a smaller community.” A Snapshot of: Rural Medicine Week 2015
Retrieved from: https://romponline.com/wp-content/uploads/ROMP_week.pdf
The Haliburton Family Medical Centre, Haliburton Highlands Family Health Team, and the Haliburton Highlands Health Services hosted two first year medical students from May 29 to June 2, 2017. They were scheduled in the Emergency Department and the Medical Clinic, and had the opportunity to participate in some well organized community events, including visits to Haliburton Forest, Abbey Gardens, Skyline Park, Haliburton School of Art and Design, Minden Hills Cultural Centre, Minden Whitewater Preserve, and Earth and Fire Pottery, to name a few. We thank Barrie Martin, Amanda Virtanen, Emily Stonehouse, Darlene Armstrong, and Dr. Greg Karaguesian for their support and planning.
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With the help and support of two physician locums, we were able to see 509 patients from July 3, 2017 to September 1, 2017, in our walk-in clinics. Of the total number of patients seen, less than 6% were rostered patients of our physicians. We hope to be able to continue the walk-in clinics next summer, but we will only be able to with additional physician support.
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As of April 1st, 2017, we will no longer be renewing prescriptions by faxed request from your pharmacy. We will instead be returning to the practice of requiring appointments for prescription renewals.
We do this for a number of reasons. We feel that, at a minimum, an annual review of your medication is required. It is an opportunity to re-evaluate whether your medications are still indicated and what changes, if any, should be made to your prescriptions. This is best accomplished at an office appointment. In addition, this process will allow you to be more engaged in and responsible for your own medical care and to have a better understanding of your medications.
We recognize that we can and should make some exceptions to this practice in certain circumstances e.g. house bound patients, palliative patients and those with transportation issues. We also realize that unforeseen circumstances might arise from time to time making an office visit impractical. In general, however, we anticipate that this practice will apply to the majority of our patients most of the time.
In order to facilitate this change, we plan to have our office schedules available several months in advance and will make every effort to accommodate urgent appointments. During the transition period between now and April 1st, we anticipate that we may still need to respond to some faxed requests for prescription renewals. Some physicians may chose to charge for this service. We will inform you if that is the case in your circumstance.
For your part, it would be very helpful and most appreciated if you come bring all your medications with you to every appointment, not just the medications needing refills. Please bring the actual pill bottles or blister packs, inhalers etc. not just a written list or a list provided by your pharmacy.
Please speak to your physician or nurse practitioner if you have any questions.
Thank you for your cooperation,
The Haliburton Highlands Family Health Team
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