Council Award
Manitoulin
Island FP’s
dedication
“legendary”
Dr. Andrew Stadnyk
photo: D.W. Dorken
D
r. Andrew Stadnyk, who has cared for
generations of patients as a family physician in his rural Manitoulin Island community for 33 years, was presented with
the Council Award in September.
Dr. Stadnyk joined a group family practice in Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island in 1982 and has been
there ever since. The community, located 170 kilometres southwest of Sudbury, has a year-round population
of 12,000, which swells to 45,000 during the summer
months and fall hunting season.
As one of six doctors in the group, Dr. Stadnyk does
a bit of everything, including stabilizing critically ill
or injured patients before sending them to a tertiary
centre, managing a 14-bed inpatient hospital, acting
as an advocate for the community’s medical needs, and
until recently, covering 24-hour shifts in the emergency
room. He also used to deliver babies.
Fifty per cent of the population is Aboriginal and Dr.
Stadnyk has been providing clinics to M’Chigeeng First
Nation for decades, always being respectful of their
cultural traditions. The health centre overflows on the
days he is there.
So beloved is Dr. Stadnyk in the Aboriginal community that the buzz around town is that it will erect a
statue of him when he retires.
In addition to his clinical duties, Dr. Stadnyk supervises and mentors medical interns from the Northern
Ontario School of Medicine, as well as family practice
residents from Ottawa, Toronto and London.
The large volume of letters of support the College’s Council Award selection committee received on
behalf of Dr. Stadnyk is a testament to how much he is
admired, valued and loved by patients, colleagues and
residents in Mindemoya.
Among the 26 letters, all well-written and heartfelt,
was one from colleague Dr. Kevin O’Connor who
described Dr. Stadnyk’s bedside manner, ethics and
patience with patients as “legendary.”
“Most nights when I am going home, he is still on the
phone with patients, discussing complex problems in
easily understood language and answering their questions with kindness and the patience of Job…To say he
is a great pillar of the community is not overstating the
case,” wrote Dr. O’Connor.
Many of his admirers like Dr. Michael Bedard, spoke
of Dr. Stadnyk being an “old-fashioned” physician.
“He has been quietly grinding away in the trenches
of rural health care for decades, disinterested in the
collection of the usual professional accolades. Caring,
healing, teaching. And kind. Above all else, kind,” said
Dr. Bedard.
Issue 3, 2015 Dialogue
19