By Cheryl Jahn

NMP graduates 30 new doctors

Apr 20, 2023 | 4:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The shingles are all laid, set to be delivered to 30 newly-minted doctors. Doctors like Stephen Freschi.

“Oh, it’s a lot of feelings all at the same time. It’s. You get the excitement. There’s a lot of hype from, you know, our community around us that are really the ones that are openly showing that excitement and like, reflecting it into us. And it’s always appreciated. And but at the same time, it’s also intimidating because, you know, we’re distributing out to some different areas across Canada for a lot of us, some of us are staying local and with it there’s a lot more responsibility coming and some more learning.”

Freschi is joining seventeen in this year’s class who will be entering family medicine. The remainder will continue their education to become specialists in areas like general surgery, anesthesiology, and pediatrics. And Dr. Paul Winwood says there is a sense of pride with every graduating class.

“They’re spread all over Canada. The majority stay in B.C., mostly in rural and smaller communities,” says Dr. Paul Winwood, Regional Associate Dean, Division of Medicine. “And I feel like they’re amongst the best-trained physicians in the world. They get tremendous experience here in the north and tremendous input from our community and our physicians and our other health care workers.”

The Northern Medical Program has been around for was borne of a rally in 2000, in which the community was suffering badly from a lack of doctors. The fact this program has graduated 470 doctors in 16 years speaks to how the model works.

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“This is more than a proof of concept. And we’re recognized across the country and across the world for the work that has been done in northern B.C. and graduating physicians who will most likely practice in rural and remote areas.”

“For me personally, I’m going to be continuing some actual studying,” says Freschi. “I have to do some licensing exam before we start our residency. So we commence that July 1st. I’m hoping to get it out of the way so I can make the most of the rest of a little bit of a break before we start.”

Though not a Prince George native, Stephen will be a practicing general practitioner in this community.

“I’ve matched to a family medicine here in Prince George. Yeah. And the residency program. So I’ll be seeing a lot more of the professionals around here, a lot more of my preceptors that I had in my clerkship in third year. And yeah, it’s quite nice.”

He is a living, breathing testament to what Northern Medical Program was designed to do: train in the North, stay in the North.