ESTEVAN - Dr. Ihab Kamel hopes to start accepting new patients as soon as the beginning of next week.
A physician with three decades of experience, Kamel followed a unique path that led him to Estevan, where he is starting a family practice together with his wife, Dr. Rania Eldin, also well known to the community.
Eldin started practising in Estevan out of the Primacy Medical Clinic attached to the No Frills Grocery Store over two years ago, and throughout that time she was doing her best to convince her husband to join her in the Energy City.
"I was working in a faraway community, about three hours away. I was driving every weekend, and it was really difficult, and we were planning to join together, but things didn't work out a year ago," shared Kamel.
"Now our son is joining the university in Saskatoon, and I got some offers from Saskatoon, but she convinced me it's better to stay here … She did her part," added Kamel with a laugh.
Their son, Ismail Kamel, graduated from Estevan Comprehensive School this year with a 99.78 per cent final average and was the valedictorian of the 2022 class. In his education excellence, Ismail followed in his father's steps, who at his time, graduated from the University of Cairo in Egypt among the top one per cent of the class.
Kamel noted that St. Joseph's Hospital and executive director Greg Hoffort also played a big role in their decision, as Hoffort was very accommodating in helping them reach their goals and establish the practice in Estevan.
"Mr. Hoffort … was able to solve the problems and break all the walls that we were facing," Kamel said.
For the past three years, Kamel has been splitting his time between Gravelbourg and Lafleche, and he said that working in two communities, covering long terms and emergency rooms was "demanding and tough." However, the past years of practice in Saskatchewan were good in general, he added.
He also might be known to some patients in Estevan, as he was a locum in the emergency room at St. Joe's.
"This was a very good chance to get introduced to the community, the patients, the staffing here in the hospital, get to know them very well and make friends with them. It was a transition period but it was very useful," Kamel said.
Kamel started practising in 1992 in Egypt and had an opportunity to explore different areas of medicine.
"I did have a practice in Egypt, I did practise a lot of things. I'm easy to get bored, so I don't [like] to stay with one thing for a long time. So, I did practise surgery, that's the most that I practised in my life. I was very much interested in surgery, surgical procedures, plastic surgery for a while. But then again, not to be confined to one specialty only, I did have the general practice in addition to that," Kamel shared.
He said that while they are starting as family physicians in Estevan, he may return to his interest in surgical medicine further down the road.
"My surgical privileges and surgical interests are still in my mind and in my heart. And I'm hoping and willing and planning actually to try to implement some of my previous experiences to serve the people of Estevan," Kamel said.
The family first arrived in Canada in 2012 and settled in Ontario, but after a few years, they decided to move to Saskatchewan.
Eldin joined the practice in Estevan about two years ago.
"I've been practising in the No Frills clinic for the last two years. I have my patients and I know the community quite well," she said, adding that after the first few months her practice started to be full.
"My whole interest is family medicine, just the chronic diseases and the follow-up and the preventive medicine for my patients. And they offer prenatal care as well. So I have been doing this in Egypt and I'm continuing this here."
Eldin also received her medical training in Egypt, graduating from the same university as Kamel, but quite a few years after him, she noted with a laugh. She has over 15 years of medical practice experience. Both Eldin and Kamel are also graduates of the Saskatchewan International Physicians Practice Assessment program (SIPPA), which is the competency assessment system used by the province of Saskatchewan to ensure the qualifications of international physicians prior to licensing in Saskatchewan.
Kamel is currently organizing his database and getting ready to start accepting patients at the Southeast Medical Group, located at the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation Clinic.
"I'm accepting new patients. We'll just need a resumé or a small synopsis of the patient's health to know if they have any problems, and the medication list. That's what I need. And then I'll take patients," Kamel said, adding that the summary of the patient's health history can be just written on a piece of paper.
"I'll be starting as soon as possible. We'll have a temporary secretary for a month and then I'll have my permanent one. I'll be booking right away. So as soon as I get my tech stuff going, I'm off to go."
Eldin will move from the clinic at No Frills and will continue with her practice out of the new location starting in September.
Kamel said the new practice and the new chapter of his life keep him really excited. He noted that the previous stage of his life was good, but he hopes this one will be even better.
"I'm looking forward to taking good care and serving the people of Estevan, and I hope it will be a pleasant stay. That's my aim. And that's my plan. And that's my wish," Kamel said.
Hoffort said the hospital is very excited to welcome the new doctor and to see the family practising together.
"We're thrilled to welcome Dr. Kamel to Estevan. We're very pleased that Dr. Eldin will be joining and that they have chosen to start their practice together. And Dr. Eldin will be staying, she's become an important member of our medical staff and really helped our community through some difficult times in the past couple of years with the ebbs and flows in physician levels,” said Hoffort.
“We're thrilled that she's staying in Estevan and continuing her practice with Dr. Kamel. We couldn't be happier to have two high-quality physicians in our community serving the patients who are very much in need.”
Another doctor, Dr. Vijay Prabhu, joined St. Joseph's Hospital earlier this summer. Prabhu began his practice in late June in Estevan at the Southeast Medical Group.
