Dr. John O’Connor is passionate about caring for indigenous communities in Northern Alberta
Channel: RhPAP
Date: 2020-12-02

As his name would suggest, Dr. John O’Connor is from Ireland. He grew up and went to medical school there and did his internship in a remote area of Northern Ireland.
 
In 1984, he came to Canada, where he started practising as a locum physician, covering absences for other doctors in rural Nova Scotia. Ten years later, Dr. O’Connor took over a medical practice in Fort McMurray that included providing care to three indigenous communities. 

It took about a year to earn the trust of the elders in the Indigenous communities he served, but it marked the beginning of the most gratifying part of his career.

“It was incredibly rewarding. You felt you were making a difference to people’s lives."

In 2001, Dr. O’Connor added Fort Chipewyan to the Indigenous communities he served. Not long after arriving, he became alarmed by what  he was seeing.

Fort Chipewyan is located next to Lake Athabasca near the mouth of the Athabasca River. Elders were worried that the upstream oil sands industry was having a negative impact on their health. They trusted Dr. O’Conner to be an advocate for their concerns.

He appeared in a documentary titled “Downstream” that explored the effects that the oil sands were having on the environment in Fort Chipewyan. 

“The end result was that this [documentary] highlighted [and] intensified the spotlight on a part of Alberta, and connected the plight of Indigenous communities with North America and beyond when it comes to resource management,” says Dr. O’Connor.

Today, he practises as a hospitalist at the Fort McMurray Hospital, offers care at a homeless drop-in centre, and provides primary care to the Indigenous community of Fort McKay.

He hopes to find more time in the future to play guitar, enjoy his nine grandchildren, and continues to be an advocate for rural health to up-and-coming physicians.

“People need to realize that working in a rural area is not scary and, if you truly want to experience rural medicine, it is incredibly rewarding.”