Caitlyn Davidson Meyer will soon be coming back home to Flin Flon, medical degree in hand, with hopes of opening up a practice as a family physician.
Davidson Meyer will return to her hometown in early 2023 to set up a family medicine practice, working out of the same Flin Flon Clinic building named after her grandfather.
“I will be coming back as a family physician and reopening the old Flin Flon clinic, which will be renamed the Flin Flon Community Clinic,” said Davidson Meyer.
“We’re aiming for roughly the beginning of February.”
Once the clinic opens, Davidson Meyer said her plans are to run a full-scope family practice, accepting a panel of patients later this winter and possibly walk-in patients. She hopes to attract family physicians to work alongside her within the new clinic.
“I obviously have connections to the community and hopefully, I can advocate for health care and expanding health care in the community,” she said.
While Flin Flon previously had several family doctors who operated their own practices, only one, Dr. Krishan Sethi, has operated in recent years. Several doctors work for the Northern Health Region in Flin Flon, but care often relies on locum physicians who travel to Flin Flon for work and who do not have permanent residence in the community.
Davidson Meyer graduated from Hapnot Collegiate in 2010, then headed to Saskatoon for study at the Univ. of Saskatchewan. She holds a bachelor’s degree in science and nutrition and, in 2020, received her medical degree. She is currently finishing a residency in Prince Albert through the U of S’ family medicine program.
While a lot of exceptional students leave Flin Flon for university programs, most don’t come back when they’re done. That was never the plan for Davidson Meyer, who said returning was always part of her plans.
“When I left Flin Flon, I always knew I would come back. I didn’t really know I was going to end up being in medicine or as a physician, but I knew it would be in health care in some capacity. It’s always been in my plans and always has been something I felt was important,” she said.
“I always saw it as a bit of a gap in the community, something I’d be able to fill and hopefully become a permanent person in Flin Flon, working on improving health care in the area.”
Davidson Meyer’s roots in Flin Flon, particularly in its medical community, run deep. Davidson Meyer is a fourth-generation medical professional and will become the third member of her family to work in Flin Flon health care.
Her father was a pharmacist in town, as was her grandfather, Murray Davidson, and her great-grandfather - in fact, the building Davidson Meyer will open up the clinic in is officially named the H.M. Davidson Medical Building after Murray’s full legal name. It’s the same building in which her father began his own career as a pharmacist.
“There is a sense of pride I have in both my dad and my grandpa and continuing within the field, being connected to the community within that role, as a health care provider. I definitely think my passion for Flin Flon has stemmed from my family and the roots that have grown there,” she said.
“Me being able to come back and provide that service, that is really important to me.”
Part of Davidson Meyer’s plans are to attract other medical professionals to the area to work at the clinic, working together in practice. Her goal is to make sure Flin Flonners who do not currently have a family doctor are still covered for medical care.
“My goal or plan is to open a clinic, establish a new practice and attract additional physicians to the area, hopefully to improve the proportion of people in Flin Flon and the surrounding area who have a family doctor,” said Davidson Meyer.
“I feel strongly connected to Flin Flon, I still have family present in Flin Flon. I’m seeing that gap in health care and particularly those individuals needing family physicians. It’s obviously a skill I’ve attained while leaving and a gap that I definitely think I can fill and help work on improving once I return.”
Renovations are currently taking place at the clinic building - those fixes are expected to wrap up by the end of 2022.
“It should be getting slowly into its final touches in the next few months,” said Davidson Meyer.
