PEMBROKE — Pembroke Regional Hospital is excited to announce the arrival of urologist Dr. Jeremy Setterfield who has joined the hospital’s medical staff and will lead the Urology program, following in the footsteps of Dr. Scott Murray who established the program in 1981 and is now transitioning into retirement.
“This is an exciting time for our Surgical program as we celebrate the career of Dr. Murray and welcome Dr. Setterfield who will be expanding urology services in the region to include additional procedures such as laparoscopic kidney surgery and radical prostatectomies (removal of the prostate gland),” said Francois Lemaire, Vice-President of Patient Services – Acute Care and Chief Nursing Executive at PRH.
Urology is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the male and female urinary-tract systems and the male reproductive organs.
From an early age, Dr. Setterfield said he knew he wanted to become a doctor. He grew up in Ottawa where his mother worked as a nurse but said his decision to go into medicine stemmed from an interest in doing something “hands-on”.
Dr. Setterfield earned an undergraduate degree in bio-chemistry and attended Medical School at Queen’s University where he developed an interest in surgery and he credits a positive training experience in the field of urology as the reason he chose that specialty.
Five years ago, he returned to Ottawa for residency. Dr. Setterfield spent the last five years completing his specialty training in urology which included clinical work and patient case management, all of which he found very rewarding.
“It’s a great group there, a great place where I received good training in all areas of urology – oncology, endoscopy, dealing with kidney stones, lots of niche areas too,” Dr. Setterfield said, adding that he successfully completed his residency in June.
He also spent the last couple of years thinking about where he wanted to end up and what type of practice he envisioned for himself. Acknowledging a desire to care for a wide breadth of patients, he said he knew that he would have to look at different community-based practices to be able to do that.
“The number one reason I decided to establish my practice here was because of my positive experience during residency,” Dr. Setterfield said, noting he did a two-month surgical rotation with Dr. Scott Graham, Dr. Colleen Haney and Dr. Adel El fitori in the hospital’s general surgery department in his second year and a one-month rotation with Dr. Murray in urology in his fourth year.
“Because of this, I knew the area and had the opportunity to grow quite fond of the work environment,” he said, adding, “Additionally, having an opportunity to expand service offerings in the department was an attractive feature.”
Newly married, Dr. Setterfield’s wife Roo Deinstadt is beginning a PhD in Ottawa so proximity to the city was important too.
Once his practice has ramped up, Dr. Setterfield said he anticipates being able to handle 95 percent of urology cases right here in Renfrew County.
“I’m already starting to get a lot of referrals back from Ottawa for patients from within the region so things are going well,” he said.
In the near future, the hospital also has plans to recruit a second urologist for the practice so Dr. Setterfield is excited to be able to mold the program to the point where this is an attractive position for potential candidates.
He added that another great advantage to working at PRH is the fact that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has recently been put in place with the Ottawa Hospital’s Urology department which formalizes a long-standing working relationship with the surgeons in Ottawa and ensures support for Dr. Setterfield and the team in Pembroke.
“After five years of training in Ottawa I developed a great rapport with the Ottawa group and having their support readily available removes any sense of isolation,” Dr. Setterfield said.
Under terms of the MOU, Dr. Setterfield remains a member of the department of Urology in Ottawa, can still take part in educational opportunities, and can liaise back and forth with colleagues. It also facilitates opportunities for Ottawa-based urologists to join him in Pembroke on larger and more unique surgeries.
Dr. Murray agrees that having the MOU in place allows for better flow back and forth and really formalizes the relationship that he’s had with Ottawa for almost 40 years.
“I’ve always had a great relationship with Ottawa. I trained in Ottawa and they’ve continued to back me for all the time I’ve been here,” Dr. Murray said, as he begins to wind down his involvement in the hospital’s Urology department.
Looking back on his earlier days, Dr. Murray said that he was warmly welcomed when he came to Pembroke to set up practice in 1981.
While he had hoped to see his practice expand during his career, Dr. Murray said there was never much luck in terms of recruitment due to physician shortages – a situation that is only now starting to turn around with the introduction of new graduates like Dr. Setterfield in the field.
Reflecting on his career to date, Dr. Murray said, “The hospital’s been tremendous to me and my family and I’m really going to miss it.”
But, rather than come to a complete stop, Dr. Murray will be transitioning into a community-based role in palliative care, a field he sees as having a real value as the population ages.
