Highlighting our Team: Dr. Rachel Schoon

Dr. Rachel Schoon, Physician, is part of the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) health care team.

Dr. Schoon provides patient care both at SLMHC and in First Nations communities, working in a variety of areas such as the Emergency Department and with the obstetrics team.

“The physicians in the area, we work a wide spectrum. For myself, and most physicians here, we do emergency, hospitalist, and clinic. We also tend to cover northern communities as well, both by phone and visiting in-person. I cover the community of Wapekeka (First Nation), and I’m also part of the obstetrics team here as well so I do a few OB shifts here a month,” Dr. Schoon explains. “There’s also the non-glamorous stuff like paperwork, filling prescriptions, and things like that. I also, from time-to-time, cover Day Medicine and help out wherever needed.”

Dr. Schoon started providing patient care in Sioux Lookout and in surrounding communities as a locum in 2019. She has since started on contract in January, and says she loves the welcoming and collaborative health care environment here.

“One of the things I really liked when I first started coming here as a locum, and part of the reason I was happy to sign on as contract, is I found people to be very welcoming… It just makes it more of an enjoyable experience,” Dr. Schoon says. “I really liked the idea of being part of a team of physicians. I’ve mostly worked rural and remote since I graduated, but some of the communities I worked in are very much a one-physician community… I loved coming here and being able to bounce ideas off of other physicians.”

Interested in providing rural and remote health care as a practicing physician? Visit www.siouxlookoutareadocs.ca for more information and resources.