Very impressed by Canora’s medical facilities, Dr. Hamed Afshari is the newest addition to the community’s primary health care team.
He is also one of Canada’s newest citizens, taking his oath about two months ago in Vancouver.
Having just completed the SIPPA (Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment) program, he joined the Canora team on October 13. He said the first month has gone by very fast as he went through orientation at the Canora Health and Wellness Centre and at the Canora Hospital. His personal life has also been a blur as he and his wife, Sara, and their daughter, Jana, 2, have been making their new home in Canora.
During the official opening of the Canora Health and Wellness Centre last week, Afshari praised the design of the new facility which is under the same roof as the hospital and the Collaborative Emergency Centre (CEC). He says it is designed to well serve patients with the emergency department, lab and X-ray departments all being so close.
“As a member of the primary health care team, I can offer my patients more options for appointment times and, because the CEC takes over in the evening, I am able to spend more time with my family. It is a very good system and one that attracted me to Canora.”
Originally from Iran, where he was a medical doctor for eight years, Afshari immigrated to Canada as a skilled worker about four years ago. Before his medical credentials could be recognized in Canada, he went through years of study, examinations and re-certification. During much of that time he worked under other doctors in Vancouver which helped him maintain his skills. His wife, who is also a doctor, was also working on her re-certification, but that has been put on hold since the birth of their child.
Having the experience of working in Vancouver, which has a population of more than 2.4 million in the greater Vancouver area, Afshari said he has been pleasantly surprised by the increased level of care he is able to deliver from Canora, which has a population of about 2,500. As an example, he said if he had to refer a patient to a specialist or for a test like an MRI, he would expect his patient to have the appointment in three to six months. From Canora, patients are receiving the same sorts of appointments in a fraction of the time. Even from his own personal experience, the time that patients wait in the emergency room is a fraction of what was expected in Vancouver.
As far as how the clinic is equipped, he says the Wellness Centre is the same if not better than some of the clinics he worked at in Vancouver.
The main difference he is noticing in Canora as compared to his work in Vancouver or in Iran is that the average patient is substantially older, and requires a different approach. Iran has a very young population, he said. In Canora, doctors have to deal much more with geriatric complaints.
About a year before he immigrated to Canada, Afshari was first introduced to the country while on a North American tour with an Iranian orchestra. He played the “Tar” of lute, a stringed instrument native to Iran. During that trip, his orchestra played in Vancouver and in Toronto.
Before deciding to immigrate, Afshari said he did his research and Canada has a very favourable reputation in the world. It is known as a good country for immigrants and it is welcoming and accepting of all cultures. The goal was to be able to provide a better living for his family.
Immigration seems to never be for the generation making the move, but it is for the next generation, he said. Canada has the promise of a much better way of life.
Beside playing Persian classical music, Afshari said his only other major personal interest is art. However, now that he is a Canadian citizen and he has made Canora his home, he is eager to get out and experience the lifestyle in the community. He is still a little leery about experiencing the coldest days of winter on the prairies, but he and his family plan to take it in stride.
One of the biggest differences he is experiencing is the silence. Where he grew up in the City of Kashan, the population was 300,000. Where he went to university in Tehran, the population was 12 million. Even the last few years living in the greater Vancouver area, the population was 2.4 million. So far he thinks he is enjoying the relevant silence offered by Canora, but he has never lived in such a sparsely populated area.
