A new family physician has started their practice in Estevan as St. Joseph's Hospital is welcoming Dr. Simranjit Chambra to the city today. She started her practice at the Primacy Medical Clinic located at the No Frills Gorcery store earlier this month.

Dr. Chambra recently complayed her Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assesment Program (SIPPA), and has over 14 years of experience in both family and emergency medicine, and has a particular interest in preventative medicine and care for the elderly. During her SIPPA work, she worked in Regina, Melville, and Moose Jaw.

In a release, Hospital Executive Director Greg Hoffort said, "Dr. Chambra is a welcome addition to the medical staff in Estevan in terms of family practice she will establish as well as the service to the hospital emergency department which is staffed by our Family Physicians."

For Dr. Chambra, her position in Estevan is one that she is excited for. She started working at the Primacy Medical Clinic on April 1 before officially opening her practice today, and to have an opportunity to work closely with all different kinds of age groups is something she looks forward to.

"It's a wonderful experience and I'm very excited to meet the community of Estevan and I'm happy to serve here. There are people from all age groups with three elementary schools and a huge high schools. There's a lot of opportunities, and I think it will be a great opportunity for me to serve here."

Dr. Chambra originally graduated from the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences in India in 2002 before serving in a number of communities around her home country as well as some of the areas near India's borders. She brought her family to Canada six years ago and spent three years working to get her credentials in Canada at the University of British Columbia before being accepted into SIPPA and has been practicing fully in the last three years.

While the prospect of working with all kinds of age groups is important, Dr. Chambra does have a particular interest in helping the elderly because of a personal experience from her own life.

"I have had that interest for many years. Most of the elderly have memory problems, so I think they need a little extra support and care because they can't express their feelings. My mother is elderly now and from her health I came to know that it's really important to give that support to the elderly, so that's why it genereated my interest and in the future I also want to do some kind of advanced research so we can provide them better care for their health."

As for Hospital Executive Director Greg Hoffort, he says that hiring Dr. Chambra came in fairly short order when she expressed her interest in working in Estevan. After looking at her resume, Hoffort said that hiring her on board was pretty easy decision to make.

"We're certainly looking for family physicians on a continual basis, and Dr. Chambra comes to us with 14 years experience in family medicine so joining the practice here at the Primacy Clinic is a huge benefit to our community to allow some of our folks to have a family physician, and also great experience in an emergency room which in a community like ours where the family physicians are also expected to cover the emergency room, which is a big task for them, that experience that Dr. Chambra brings is most impressive to us as well."

Dr. Chambra is now the fourteenth doctor in the city, and with two expected to leave in the summer, her hiring balances out the numbers in the city.