A Lifetime of Care, a Lasting Commitment to Canmore
For Dr. John Parboosingh, a donation to a hospital carries a message beyond its dollar value.
“Immediately, people think of the money,” he says. “But it also tells the hospital that there are people here who think you’re important.”
It’s a belief shaped by a career in women’s health and medical education, decades of relationships with rural healthcare teams, and the experience of having his own family cared for in Canmore. Today, it’s part of what keeps him giving to the Canmore Hospital Foundation and supporting the Sisterhood Summit–a fundraising luncheon focused on supporting women’s health–as its lead donor.
He’s modest about that recognition. Retired for many years, he’s more interested in encouraging support for women’s health than drawing attention to himself. But his story offers a powerful reason to give: he has seen what a community hospital can mean from almost every side.
A Connection That Began with a Birth
Dr. Parboosingh’s first visit to Canmore was in 1979, when he was called from Calgary to help with a delivery at the old hospital on Hospital Hill.
He had trained in obstetrics and gynecology and worked at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, where his interests included bringing care beyond the main centre through satellite clinics. A conversation with the dean of the University of Calgary’s medical school eventually brought him to Alberta, where he began building connections between the university and rural hospitals.
Canmore was one of those hospitals. That first visit, though, introduced him to something that stayed with him.
After the delivery, a community nurse offered to take him around town. The tour became an introduction to the people she cared for: neighbours with health concerns, familiar faces, and the everyday work of helping people look after themselves.
“It turned out to be a healthcare trip,” he recalls.
That evening, he returned home with an idea for his wife: perhaps they should have a weekend house in Canmore. They bought one in 1982, beginning a connection to the community that would eventually bring them here permanently.
Bringing Knowledge Closer to Patients
Throughout his work in Alberta, Dr. Parboosingh focused on helping rural healthcare teams access specialist knowledge and build their own capabilities.
The outreach program connected more than 30 hospitals at one point, extending into southeastern British Columbia. Weekly telephone conferences brought doctors and senior nurses together with speakers from Foothills, followed by discussions. Hospital visits and telephone consultations helped strengthen those relationships.
The technology was limited. The need for connection was clear.
In obstetrics, he knew rural physicians needed the knowledge to recognize when a pregnancy or delivery was becoming more complex. Even when a patient needed specialist care elsewhere, the local team had a vital role in recognizing risk and responding.
One story still brings out his enthusiasm. When a patient in Pincher Creek donated funds for a fetal monitor, he saw an opportunity to connect the rural hospital with specialist support in Calgary. After learning about fax machines at a dinner, he arranged to borrow two. One went to Pincher Creek. The other went to his home.
Soon, fetal monitor tracings were being faxed to him for interpretation. Other hospitals became interested, and local donors helped make equipment available in their own communities.
“All the small hospitals found someone that could donate a fetal monitor,” he remembers.
In his telling, the story brings together several things that matter to rural care: local generosity, practical equipment, education, and access to someone who can help interpret what a healthcare team is seeing.
His work also included collaborating on a specially equipped ambulance for newborns. Experiences caring for women whose premature babies had died during transport reinforced his commitment to education and communication between rural teams and specialists.
“We’ve come a long way,” he says. “There’s been a lot of great improvement.”
Learning from the People Doing the Work
His career later took him to Ottawa, where he worked with the Royal College on continuing education for specialists. International commitments followed, but Canmore remained part of his life. After returning to Alberta, he and his wife chose to make it their permanent home.
Retirement didn’t end his curiosity about how healthcare teams could learn and work together.
He approached the Canmore hospital about a research project and asked staff what they wanted to explore. Together, they developed the Peak Project, focused on learning within day-to-day practice. A pilot led to a substantial three-year grant, and hospital staff chose the project’s name.
That ownership mattered to him.
“I was not taking a research project to them; they were developing the project themselves,” he says.
The work encouraged nurses to reflect on their practice, discuss evidence and learn as a team. It respected the knowledge of the people providing care and gave them an active role in shaping their own education.
“It created a team approach to education on the spot,” he recalls.
That same sense of teamwork is part of what he values about the hospital today.
“There is something very unique about the Canmore Hospital,” he says. “And about the people there.”
His appreciation for the hospital also has a personal dimension. During his wife’s illness, most of her care took place in Calgary, with some care provided in Canmore. He remembers travelling between the two communities and hearing ambulance staff say they had known his son, Simon. Those connections stayed with him, a reminder of how closely healthcare and community can be woven together.
A Continuing Commitment to Women’s Health
Women’s health has been a constant throughout Dr. Parboosingh’s life. Both his mother and father were obstetricians in Jamaica. As a child, he remembers the telephone ringing at four in the morning when his father was in practice.
His own interest grew during medical training in Edinburgh and became the focus of his clinical career, including his work in high-risk obstetrics in Calgary.
“When you start focusing on an issue, it takes a while before it hooks you,” he says. “And you become even more focused, and it becomes part of your life.”
That commitment continues through his giving. He donates each year, attended the previous Sisterhood Summit, and is supporting this year’s event as its lead donor.
“My entire practice has been in women’s health,” he says.
For the Canmore Hospital Foundation, his support is a meaningful part of bringing people together around women’s health. The Sisterhood Summit offers a place for that commitment to be shared and for others to become involved.
His story also speaks to the broader importance of supporting rural medicine. Across his career, progress depended on people working together: physicians sharing knowledge, nurses shaping research, specialists answering calls, and donors helping hospitals access equipment.
He sees every donor as part of that work.
“I believe the little donors are as important as the big donors,” he says. “The more of them, the more the hospital realizes that people appreciate them.”
It’s an invitation to anyone who values care close to home. Supporting the Canmore Hospital Foundation, through the Sisterhood Summit or a donation of any size, helps sustain a community’s commitment to its hospital and the people who care for us there.
For Dr. Parboosingh, that commitment has lasted decades. It began with a call to help at a delivery and grew through professional relationships, family experiences and a deep respect for the people providing care. Today, his giving carries the same message he hopes every donor will send: this hospital matters, and so do the people within it.
If you are inspired to invest in women's health, please make a donation today. Every dollar will help purchase equipment, improve facilities and support ongoing training and education for staff. Your gift can transform a life.
