| May 25, 2016


Dr. Laurel Dempsey came to Verona in the mid-1990s from Toronto. She was interested in primary care and community-based medicine and wanted to participate in what she describes as the “first iteration of primary care reform in Ontario”.

Doctor Gordon Day was getting ready to retire from his practice in Verona at the time, and the two worked together for five years until Dr. Dempsey took over the practice, and bought the clinic building in the year 2000.

Since then she has not only run the clinic and served the large rural practice, which had been established since the early 1960s, she has also been the lead physician for the Rural Kingston Family Health Organisation (FHO). The Rural Kingston FHO is made up of all the primary care providers in Frontenac and rural L&A counties, including the physician-run clinics in Sydenham, Verona, Tamworth, and Newburgh, and the family health teams in Sharbot Lake and Northbrook.

“The idea behind the family health organisation was to offer a solid family medicine base for rural residents, with the addition of other services,” she said.

As the result of the FHO, dietician, psychiatric, dermatology, and even cardiac services have been offered at the Verona clinic and at other locations in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington.

Lynn Wilson, who has been the administrator of both the Verona Clinic and the FHO, has also managed an initiative called Health Links. Health Links targets the most medically vulnerable population, has also been established in the two counties.

But for her patients, Doctor Dempsey has always been someone who understood rural practice. When she took over from Dr. Day, she continued to put in long hours, and quietly made home visits to some of her very ill patients.

“She has been such an open and welcoming person, and from the start her relationship to the community and to her patients has been a warm one,” said John McDougall, who is a patient of hers and was one of the founders of the Verona Medical Services Committee. The committee now acts as a liaison between the clinic and the Township of South Frontenac.

The relationship between the clinic and the township was also an offshoot of Dr. Dempsey's efforts. She went to the Verona Community Association 10 years ago to talk about the future, envisioning back then that things would need to change in order to ensure the future of primary care in Verona upon her retirement.

Two of the issues that needed to be worked on were physician recruitment and the related issue of the ownership of the building where the Verona Medical Clinic is located.

“Doctor Dempsey told us, and this was confirmed when we went to meet with medical students to try and sell them on Verona, that the new generation of doctors did not want to take on the financial or administrative burden of owning buildings, so we went to the township and they were willing to take ownership of the building, which was very important,” said McDougall.

The clinic has been able to recruit two doctors over the past five years: Doctor Oglaza, who is about to do a residency in public health, and Doctor Gibbons, who will be taking over as lead physician at the clinic next month as Dr. Dempsey is retiring.

“One thing our patients need to know is that they have to register with Doctor Gibbons,” said Doctor Dempsey, “but patients don't need to worry that they are losing services, as she will take all of my patients on.”

An Open House is set for this Saturday, May 28 at the Verona Lions Hall between 2 and 4pm for the community to express their appreciation for the 21 years of service Dr. Dempsey has given to the community, and there will be a dinner later on. For tickets to the dinner, contact the Lions.

As for Doctor Dempsey, she may be retiring from her full-time practice but she will be continuing to work in Verona and at some other clinics on a more casual basis. A commitment to family medicine is not something that is turned off when doctors reach the so-called retirement age.

“She has always been committed to reform but is also a link to the way medicine was practised in the past,” said John McDougall. “She certainly has done well by us in Verona over the years.”

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