Family doctor available for Medicine Hat College students and staff

“The college staff, students, those people have to complete an online registration form. All of my booking is online,” Dr. Wanner said.

“Once they complete that registration form, I send them a link for my booking platform that never expires, so as long as they’re here at the college, they have access to that and they can book.”

Dependants and spouses of students and staff are also supported, able to set up appointments while the clinic is open during the day Monday through Thursday.

This is something a lot of students on campus weren’t aware of, even with posters throughout the college.

Some Students noted how much more convenient it is for them to know the service is available on campus.

One student happy to know they won’t have to continue their search for a family doctor while going to school.

“I have been looking and most clinics around here they are like pretty full with being able to take in new patients,” a second year Criminal Justice student said.

Dr. Wanner, also a former student at the college has operated at the clinic since 2014, with it opening prior to that.

“I used to have a traditional family practice. I had a group of patients that I cared for at another clinic in town and that group of physicians would just initially take a day a week and come and support the services here,” Dr. Wanner said.

“As time has gone on I ended up about four years just being the solo doctor here.”

Dr. Wanner sees hundreds of patients throughout the year, and knows there is a strong need for her service at the college, especially with for the students.

“It’s somewhat of a unique population and especially with the state of health care right now and significant difficulties getting family doctors,” Dr. Wanner said.

“There’s a lot of people that don’t have a family doctor and I wanted to be able to have the opportunity to provide high quality, accessible services that might be a little different than what you might see in other walk-in clinics.”

This September, the clinic also partnered with the counselling department at the college to offer a once a week drop-in service for students for mental health support.

Wanner hopes to grow the clinic within the college to be able to expand the supports provided.

by Jesse Gill

Family doctor available for Medicine Hat College students and staff

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