Portage la Prairie residents should be able to enjoy a little less time to see a doctor now that three new doctors have joined the Portage Clinic Inc.

Dr. Edward Tan, Dr. Joe Kim, and Dr. Chris (Kit) Hunter started with the clinic recently and are all accepting new patients.

Kim said he is glad to be one of the new doctors at Portage Clinic to serve patients here.

“It feels good being part of the solution rather than the problem,” he said. “We became doctors to help people that need our help. Being able to do that, you can’t really ask for much else.”

The doctors are recent graduates of University of Manitoba medical school.

Dr Kim, said he and Dr Hunter, 27, were previously doing a residency in Dauphin as part of the rural family medicine stream of their program at U of M, while Dr. Tan completed the city/urban stream of the family medicine program and trained out of Winnipeg.

The new doctors said they enjoy being in Portage now to start their practices.

“It feels good to be in Portage,” said Hunter. “I have been here before as a med student. I was with Dr. Price for two months, and I really enjoyed it. I am from a small town, Swan River, so I obviously enjoy working in a rural community. It’s nice to get back.”

He said he enjoys the variety of practice working out of Portage – including emergency room, obstetrics, and looking after patients at their clinic.

“It’s a good continuity of care,” said Hunter.

Tan, 28, who is originally from Winnipeg has also been in Portage before and was recently here doing part of his residency with Dr. Ross in surgery.

“I enjoy the diversity of the practice, and a chance to work with really good core people,” he said. “As family medicine residents, we were trained to pretty much treat the entire spectrum of diseases. Regardless of your disease process or how old you are, we should have some base-understanding of how to deal with it and what to do with it.”

Dr. Kim, 30, is originally from South Korea but grew up in Canada. He was previously doing his residency in Portage, training with Dr. Ross.

“I love rural settings,” said Kim. ‘I love the outdoors and there is ample opportunity to get out in the air. I also enjoy golfing quite a bit and there is a very nice golf course in town … I love being in a small town and knowing everybody.”

angela.brown@sunmedia.ca