Saint John Business Leaders Establish $5,000 Medical Scholarship
This story is part of an ongoing series called, Business Does Good, stories about Maritime companies contributing time and money to making their communities stronger.
SAINT JOHN – Established restauranteurs and community volunteers Ken and Holly Singh have endowed a $5,000 recurring scholarship for a Saint John or Charlotte County area medical student who plans to practice in the region after graduating.
The Ken and Holly Singh (Thandi) Scholarship was announced by the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation on Tuesday.
The $5,000 scholarship will be rewarded each year for four years to a student from the Greater Saint John or Charlotte County. It is granted with a return to service pledge for the student, who will practice medicine in the region for each year the bursary is offered.
“I recognize it is hard to get a doctor and we’re an aging population in New Brunswick,” said Holly Singh, who is a co-owner of Thandi with her husband Ken. “We do need our youth here and we need good quality healthcare.”
Singh says that she and Ken have always been community-minded and have been involved with assisting health care in the province through past donations to the Saint John Hospital Foundation. The establishment of this scholarship was the natural next step.
“We’re hoping that [the student] is in Saint John, they love Saint John, and they will stay,” she said. “We also recognize there’s lots and lots of activity going on in the city and I think when we get through this pandemic, Saint John is going to flourish. There are lots of new builds and with that, we’re going to have more people and we need more doctors.”
Darren McLeod, Executive Director of the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation, says the Singhs’ scholarship is valuable to retaining medical students in the province.
“Twenty percent of the physician workforce in this province is over 55. People are retiring,” said McLeod. “We have a lot of areas that need young physicians and specialists coming into the workforce and taking over those practices. We’ve got over 45,000 people on the waiting list for a family physician. People are waiting for years.”
Demand for family doctors has become more intense as record numbers of people move to the province and growth continues.
“Everywhere in the province is booming right now with people moving in unprecedented numbers, which is a good news story for us, but they’re going to need access to health care. They’re only going to stay if they can get that,” said MacLeod. “How do you attract new business and get them to grow? Well, if your executive leadership has to wait five years for a doctor, chances are they’re not going to set up here.”
Liam Floyd is a reporter with Huddle. Send him story suggestions: [email protected].
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