THIS BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON
Brought to you by these community-minded organizations because they recognize that
good business is good for everyone:
Huntsville’s Hometown IDA welcomed Dr. Richard Brûlé to its newly constructed medical clinic at the end of August, positive news for local residents without a family physician.
Dr. Brûlé and his wife had been living in Fredericton but wanted to move to his home province of Ontario – he’s from Kitchener but his family cottaged in Gravenhurst. They had visited Ontario several times and her favourite area was Muskoka. When it came time to move, they felt Huntsville was the best choice and Dr. Brûlé reached out to the Hometown IDA – it was a timely call.
“We were planning to have a doctor here for the community because of the shortage,” said pharmacist Wasim Daoud. “I got a phone call saying that Richard would like to move to the community. I had this space that I was always planning to have something good for the community. It was perfect timing.”
Daoud had the warehouse area behind the pharmacy renovated into a clinic with multiple examination rooms. “It was a big process to switch it to a medical clinic,” he said. “But Huntsville has a huge shortage of doctors. It’s an underserviced area. Every day when I was working in the dispensary people were asking me if there are doctors accepting new patients.”
The clinic is a bright, modern and private space – despite being located behind a busy pharmacy.
One of the examination rooms in the new Hometown Clinic
Dr. Brûlé hopes to welcome a total of 1500 new patients to the clinic. “My practice is family medicine so my goal is to have whole families (as patients), rather than just one or two members, and make sure they have good access for when they need to see me,” he said. Dr. Brûlé studied at Saba University School of Medicine in the Caribbean, studying for two years there and two years in Baltimore, New York City and Atlanta, followed by a three-year residency in Grand Blanc, Michigan, before moving to Fredericton to join his wife while she studied to be a Registered Nurse.
If you are interested in being a patient of Dr. Brûlé, call the Hometown Clinic at 705-787-1919.
Dr. Brule and Shannon are so welcoming and efficient. It is obvious they are really interested in you as a person, not just another appointment to make you wait and then shuffle you out as quick as possible.
I had an an incident that took me there. They were just closing. He saw me immediately, wrote a requsition for xrays. I made it to hospital under the wire of them closing.
I would have had to go through another day of pain had he not been that responsive.
I left an area with multiple ressources for medical care. Having just relocated here there was no option for doctor until Dr. Brule opened practice.
I feel I’m lucky and so thankful to say I’m his patient.
I was in the clinic on Monday October 2 and left my name along with my husband’s. We too have just made the move to Huntsville from Collingwood and will be needing a family physician!! I hope to hear from them.
That is welcomed news for Muskoka.
What Huntsville needs is a full time walk in clinic as well as more family doctors