There's a new doctor treating students at a clinic in Sir Guy Carleton Secondary School Friday, and that's a major victory for the principal there.
In September, principal Kevin Bush went on radio to appeal for a doctor to make use of the existing clinic that was going unstaffed at the school.
Dr. Byron Lemmex answered the appeal and started on Friday to see teenage patients.
Bush had been frustrated because a study showed 34 per cent of his students had no access to a doctor, and the school had an unused medical clinic.
"We're trying to prepare our students, and health is a big component of that. It's very difficult to provide a voice for our students when they're coughing and sick," Bush said Thursday, as he announced the arrival of Dr. Lemmex.
"His heart's in the right place and he's got the skills that are going to really make a difference in the lives of our students. He views it as community service and we just view it as a godsend," Bush said.
Besides attending to his regular practice, Lemmex will see students at the school clinic every Friday.
He said his adolescent patients will bring their own set of health issues.
"Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. It'll be all sorts of things that happen in that time of their life with body-image and sexual-identity issues, and just the whole gamut from common colds to sore throats and everything else," he said.
Even though he will be there mostly for students who have no doctor, Lemmex said he'll be available to those who do, as well.
"If they can talk to me more than they can their family doctor because they think their family doctor's going to call up their parents and tell them things they don't want to talk to them about, that's great.
"I know as family physicians we hold everything in confidence, but sometimes the kids just don't accept that," he said.
