Two Northern Ontario doctors received top marks from their patients for exceptional work.
Adam Moir, a family doctor in Dryden, and Andrew Siren, an Obstetrician and gynaecologist in Thunder Bay, have both received the Patients Choice Award. Residents in the North for the first time were given a chance to nominate a physician they believe shows exceptional care to patients.
Those nominations went to a jury panel made up of patients who selected a winner.
Other communities also recognized their physicians including Peterborough, Ottawa, Sarnia-Lambton, and Windsor.
Moir said on the drive up to Thunder Bay he told his mom it was a real honour to be nominated since there were so many good and intelligent doctors in the city and the region.
The 35-year-old graduated from Lakehead University’s Northern School of Medicine and completed his residency a year ago.
Having taken home the prestigious award, he said he owes much of his success to his patients, colleagues and mentors.
“I think people who have a family doctor have a trust with them, a rapport and it puts them at ease because they have someone who can navigate them through the health system and through complex medical procedures,” Moir said.
“You do have bad days in family medicine. I do shifts in emergency as well and I always think ‘what if I didn’t do family medicine?’
“But I always return to those family relationships.”
Siren said the award felt humbling. In addition to his work as an Obstetrician and gynaecologist, Siren’s practice also deals with a lot of infertility.
It’s a service that was missing in the region for about a year and a half. When the opportunity came to bring the service back to Northwestern Ontario, Siren jumped on it.
He said it was daunting at first since he was on call seven days a week for some patients, but being able to help those patients became Siren’s reward.
“It’s excellent that patients have nominated me,” he said. “I know many of my colleagues deserve this award equally as much, if not more, than I do. I hope my patients find me a caring physician, that I listen well and hopefully provided them with some assistance. They’re coming to me to relieve their problems and hopefully I’m able to provide that service.”
