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Doctors recognized for service

After growing up in Okotoks, returning home to practice medicine was an easy decision for one local doctor. “The plan was always to come back if it was possible,” said Dr. Troy McKibbin.
Returning Okotokian and recently minted Dr. Troy McKibbin of Pinnacle Medical Centres was one of the community’ s new physicians recognized at the Okotoks Doctor’
Returning Okotokian and recently minted Dr. Troy McKibbin of Pinnacle Medical Centres was one of the community’ s new physicians recognized at the Okotoks Doctor’ s Luncheon on March 31.

After growing up in Okotoks, returning home to practice medicine was an easy decision for one local doctor.

“The plan was always to come back if it was possible,” said Dr. Troy McKibbin. “My wife has her family in south Calgary, my parents are still here, so to be close to family we wanted to come back this way.”

McKibbin chose his field at a young age. After visiting a career fair at the Foothills Composite High School in his Grade 11 year and meeting some medical students, he knew he wanted to become a physician.

Riding a scholarship, he completed a bachelor of science in biology at Brigham Young University in Utah in 2011. He then came back to Alberta to attend medical school at the University of Calgary, where he graduated in 2014.

After two years of residency in family medicine all over southern Alberta, he returned to Okotoks with his wife and four young children to set up practice at Pinnacle Medical clinic in 2016.

He said his favourite part of family medicine is developing personal relationships with a number of people. It makes every day different, he said.

“You get to see a bit of everything, and you can see a huge variety of things within any given day, much less any given week,” said McKibbin. “That always keeps it interesting.”

It also allows a doctor to develop relationships with people that aren’t always prevalent in other areas or specialties of medicine, he said.

Though it’s interesting to take on a number of different cases, he said practicing medicine can also be difficult at times.

“The stress of being responsible for somebody else’s health, especially when they’re in a bad way, that can be challenging,” said McKibbin.

More than anything, he said he feels lucky to be able to practice and raise his family in Okotoks. His oldest daughter attends Percy Pegler – the same school he did as a child.

“It’s always been home and I think will always be home,” he said.

McKibbin was recognized as one of several new doctors in town at the annual Okotoks Doctor’s Luncheon on March 31, part of the Town’s physician retention program.

Mayor Bill Robertson said it’s important to shine a light on our local doctors, and the luncheon coincides with National Doctor’s Day, which is March 30 each year.

“The luncheon is one way of saying thanks and it’s one of our retention activities,” said Robertson. “We’re basically saying we appreciate all the doctors who serve here and meet the needs of our citizens.”

He said the Town has had great success attracting new doctors. With a number of new clinics opening or about to open, such as Pinnacle Medical and the Southbank Medical Clinic, he said the number of physicians in Okotoks is healthy.

Coun. Tanya Thorn said the physician attraction committee did great work in recent years to rectify a shortage of doctors that saw residents scrambling to find a family physician.

“We’re now in a state here where we’ve actually got lots of doctors in Okotoks, which is a fantastic position to be in, but we still see the value they’re bringing to our community and we want to recognize them for choosing Okotoks to practice in,” said Thorn. “We’re really grateful for the work they do in our community.”

Other physicians recognized at the luncheon were Dr. Beatrice Duprey of Foothills Family Practice and the following practitioners at Pinnacle Medical Clinic: Dr. Stratton Steed, Dr. Roopinder Dulai, Dr. Dulynn Hastings, Dr. André Van Zyl, Dr. Victoria Wilkes, Dr. Kristy Dunne and Dr. Kemi Ogunnuga.

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