Dr. Francis Adebayo is the new Community Medical Director for Alberta Health Services in St. Paul as of July 1.
According to the Alberta Health Services (AHS) website, the community medical director is the medical administrative leader of the community. The role includes overseeing facility use and the on-call schedule, among other responsibilities.
"It entails a lot of collaboration with other team managers, like Allied Health, acute care, seniors health, psychiatry as well. It's a collaborative role that involves a lot of planning and budgeting and workforce planning and advocacy in line with AHS standards to make sure we deliver high quality health care services to the community," said Adebayo, who has been practicing as a family physician in St. Paul since April of 2012.
Asked why he became interested in the position, Adebayo said it was the same passion for service that initially led him to family medicine.
"I love the dynamic nature of family medicine, because in family medicine you see variety. You're not really boxed in to a corner, I love that variety. That's one of the defining things for me."
With the meetings and administrative work that are part of the role, Adebayo said it is inevitable that he will be at his clinic slightly less.
"But that doesn't mean my patients have to suffer because of that, I'm still available to see my patients, because that's the primary passion and that's the vital thing - to serve them."
Asked what he saw as the immediate challenges for the St. Paul Hospital, Adebayo said he's still settling in to the position and things are being addressed with AHS day by day.
"We have major areas like mental health, and obstetrics, and addictions, which is part of mental health. Those are areas that I feel Alberta Health has been trying to address in terms of capacity, trying to make sure we have enough capacity. Talking about the people who are working, that we are adequately staffed, and that we practice in a safe and convenient environment. To improve patient satisfaction as well and provide an environment where the patient will feel comfortable and satisfied. So Alberta Health Services has been working on all those areas and we're going to continue to follow up with work that has been done by my predecessors and we'll take it from there," said Adebayo, noting he hopes to see more beds added to the psychiatric unit, and that two new part-time psychiatric nursing positions have been created in the emergency room.
Originally from Nigeria, Adebayo, his wife, and two of their three children came to Canada by way of South Africa, a number of other countries in southern Africa, and Australia. Their third child, a daughter, was born just three months ago.
"It has always been where we wanted to raise our family. So every time we moved, we were moving pending the time we had an opportunity to come to Canada. At that time, it was more a chance to travel and to learn different cultures and different ways, (see) how things are done in different countries," said Adebayo.
Since arriving in St. Paul, he said they've appreciated the chance to stop jumping around and "settle down and just enjoy where we are."
Adebayo also has children aged 16 and 14, both attend school locally, and his wife of 18 years runs a small business.
"We grew up in the same community and then met each other when we were in the post secondary institutions," he said, laughing and agreeing with the suggestion it was love at first sight. "We were just friends because we were in the same community groups, so we knew each other for a while."
Asked what he does in his spare time, Adebayo said he mainly is at home enjoying time with his family and friends, and volunteering with his church, although he does try to follow what's happening in soccer.
"I don't really have a specific team, I'm just a soccer fan. My friends are fans of Chelsea, but I'm not. I just love soccer. I did play a bit when I was growing up, but not much."
