Whether it's making home visits to his patients or finding family doctors for those who need one, Dr. Louis Coetzee goes above and beyond to show compassion.
The Bonnyville physician has been recognized for this level of commitment to his patients. At the end of April, he was announced as the recipient of this year's Covenant Health Mission Award for Compassion.
“I was very surprised to receive the award. I've always been somebody who doesn't really like the limelight, so it was a very different experience for me to go up on stage and shake hands,” said Coetzee.
Originally from South Africa, Coetzee grew up with the inclination of becoming a veterinarian. After deciding to make the switch into medicine, he attended medical school at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
Together with his wife, the couple immigrated to Canada and has been in Bonnyville since 2002.
“The work conditions in South Africa have been declining over time so we were wondering if we could try something new. After working here for six months, we decided this would be our permanent home,” said Coetzee. “The Canadian medical system has been very good to us in many ways.”
After arriving in town, on Jan. 15, 2002 Coetzee joined the Bonnyville Medical Clinic. Since that day he has been busy treating patients both in the clinic and the hospital, particularly those with multiple complicated diseases.
While the majority of his practice is based on geriatric care, the local physician has a special interest in the care of the elderly, as well as joint and muscle problems, palliative care, and patients with cancer.
“My practice has been fairly busy for the last 15 years. I've been doing emergency, rotating through the hospital and the hospice program, helping in the operating room, doing the cast clinic, and then running the office schedule in the clinic seeing my chronic patients on a daily basis.”
Coetzee has gained a reputation amongst the local community for going out of his way to take on patients with chronic and complex needs. Despite not accepting new patients for over 10 years, he continues to take on patients through the walk-in clinic and hospital emergency department.
This was just one of the reasons his nominators at the Bonnyville Covenant Health Centre, Dr. Hercu van der Watt and Dr. Guy Lamoureux, felt it was fitting he receive the award for compassion.
“We just felt that it encompasses so well the type of physician that Dr. Coetzee is. Of everybody that I've worked with, he's definitely one of the most compassionate physicians,” said van der Watt. “I felt it'd be good for someone like him to get a little recognition for all of the time and effort he puts in, he definitely doesn't do it expecting anything back. If you look at the type of work he does and how far he would go for his patients, you realize sometimes it's maybe to his own detriment, but he always puts his patients first.”
One example of Coetzee's compassion at work that was outlined in the nomination form saw the Bonnyville doctor go far beyond his job description and boundaries of service. To ensure his patient got the proper care, Coetzee made the time to drive with the patient to a specialist appointment in the city.
“He actually waited with him for four hours to see a specialist to make sure that the patient received the help he required,” van der Watt recalled.
Bonnyville Health Centre site administrator Alex Smyl added, “Dr. Louis Coetzee is probably the man with the biggest heart in the world. He takes his personal time to visit patients in their own homes and is accessible to his patients 24/7. He never quits.”
While many can attest it's not the typical course of action, for Coetzee, going the extra mile has become part of the job description.
“Over the last 15 or 16 years, I've learned that medicine is maybe something a little bit more than just writing another prescription,” he noted, adding this has become more evident through his work caring for the elderly.
“Many of them come to the office not to get more medication, they come here for reassurance and basically for a hug so I can tell them things will be okay. By reassuring them and making sure they understand their disease and what will follow, it's very important for them.”
For those who aren't able to get to the clinic due to their health, Coetzee still takes the time to do home visits.
The message of showing compassion is one he passes on to the next generation of physicians by acting as a role model for students that rotate through the community. He also makes a point of telling them that if they're in it for the money, they're in the wrong profession.
“If you're in medicine you should be in medicine because you really want to help people. You have to have compassion, you shouldn't just do it for the financial incentive.”
Coetzee's endless compassion and attitude of always putting patients first is recognized, and appreciated, by both his colleagues and clients.
Unfortunately for the Bonnyville community, patients won't be able to see the award-winning physician for much longer. At the end of this summer, Coetzee and his family will be relocating to Calgary.
“I definitely am going to miss my practice, my patients, and the wonderful staff at the hospital and clinic that I've been working with for 15 years. What I will miss the most is being part of a community. These patients, we've now developed relationships that go beyond the physician-patient relationship. They have become personal relationships with people that you see out of the office, people that are part of the community and you mingle with by doing every day things,” said Coetzee, adding he wants to thank the entire community for the support they've shown to his family.
“Everybody will be dearly missed.”
