Although he arrived in Canada just a few short days ago, a new Orillia doctor is already at work, seeing local patients.
Originally from the U.K., Dr. Mohammed Khaliq is now one of two doctors at a new walk-in clinic at City Med Pharmacy on Colborne Street.
“Anybody in the community who has a family doctor, who doesn't have a family doctor, we're open to see them, to serve them, to see how we can help,” Khaliq told OrilliaMatters.
While he is still familiarizing himself with the ins and outs of the Canadian medical system, Khaliq said the hope is to have the clinic open seven days per week — from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.
“There isn’t a walk-in clinic here, and many people have to go all the way down to Barrie if they're not registered with a doctor, and it's hard to get doctor's appointments,” he said. “It’s the same everywhere in the world, I think, the same in the U.K., so I thought this here would be a good place to go.”
Khaliq has been a doctor since 2008, and decided on moving to Orillia after a visit earlier this year.
As a family doctor, Khaliq said the U.K.’s family health system has “eroded” to a degree, and he saw Canada as a good opportunity to practise the type of medicine he’s interested in.
“I wanted to have a different challenge, to come up to Canada,” he said.
“Family medicine in Canada is similar to what it was when I was training, where the doctor knew the patient ... but in the U.K. I found that that's been eroded, and sometimes I would see patients that I've never seen before and I'm never going to see again, and I wanted to practise the medicine that I trained to do.”
