New ER doctor began medical career as Veterinarian

Dogs. Cats. Birds, hamsters, turtles and guinea pigs. Even cows and horses. But no humans.

After a number of challenging and satisfying years as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. James Beecroft began the process of ‘humanizing’ his medical practice.

“It was while living in Simcoe that my wife and I became friends with a family doctor and his wife who first planted the idea of switching to ‘human’ medicine,”says Dr. Beecroft, now an Emergency Department physician in his hometown of St. Catharines.

“I call it my species expansion,” Dr. Beecroft jokes. “Humans were the only species that I could not practice on as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.”

Dr. Beecroft graduated from the University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College, in 1996. He practiced in several southern Ontario clinics, with both large and small animals, for seven years. As Dr. Beecroft’s family grew, his perspective on life began to change.

“I enjoyed practising veterinary medicine tremendously but decided that I really enjoyed working with people the most and wanted to focus my attention on their direct healthcare,” says Dr. Beecroft, a father of three.

He applied to the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and began his studies in August 2003. At that time, his youngest child was only eight months old.

After commuting from Simcoe to Hamilton for medical school for about one year, he and his wife decided to move the family to St. Catharines for both personal and professional reasons.

“I knew I would have more opportunities to complete my clinical rotations in hospital in the Niagara area,” says Dr. Beecroft.

He completed medical school in 2006 followed by his family medicine residency two years later. He was then accepted into an Emergency Medicine Program through McMaster, in which family physicians acquire an additional year in Emergency Department training.

That training wrapped up at the end of June, and Dr. Beecroft began working as an Emergency Department physician with Niagara Health last month, in the St. Catharines ED and the Ontario Street Site Prompt Care Centre.

“I have worked in numerous hospitals in Hamilton, London and Burlington, and St. Catharines is definitely presenting a new challenge for me,” Dr. Beecroft says. “The ED and Prompt Care Centre see a tremendous number of patients, and many of their healthcare needs are complex. The staff is very supportive as I take on this new challenge.”