Montreal medical practitioner graduated from UWI Faculty of Medicine
May 13, 2020
With an interest in health care and a passion for sports, Penny-Jane Baylis figured physiotherapy would be a perfect fit as a professional career.
The 1986 high school graduate completed a Bachelor of Science degree at McGill University and worked for nearly seven years as a therapist at Montreal General Hospital and the McGill Sports Medicine Clinic, providing cover for the McGill Redmen and Martlet hockey teams.
Becoming bored with her job as time went by, Baylis – who was among six female medical practitioners honoured at the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association Caribbean Tea Party to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 -- explored other options.
“There were a lot of disappointments, including opportunities to move up the ladder in a slightly misogynistic world,” she said. “I enjoyed doing physiotherapy even though I thought the pay and system could be better. There weren’t many options back in my day except going to a private clinic or working in a hospital.”
In addition to seeking physiotherapy-teaching jobs overseas, Baylis applied to several Canadian medical schools and the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“I was just looking for a change and something exciting,” she said.
UWI was the first to offer admission to Baylis who was in Trinidad & Tobago three weeks after being accepted.
Located at the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex, the UWI Faculty of Medicine offers the MD by thesis in clinical disciplines and professional training in anaesthetics, obstetrics & gynaecology, radiology, psychiatry, orthopedics, child health, internal medicine and surgery.
She said the UWI experience was phenomenal.
“In medical school, you have undergrad and you get the basic sciences, critical interview skills, how to take a heart beat and things like that,” noted Baylis. “As in any other profession, they try to form you in their vision of a professional. UWI has a unique structure, it makes you think, you have to have a good baseline and you have to work hard. Nine months after my first Carnival, I was doing an obstetric procedure and deliveries and becoming very good at it. You are doing all the IVs and blood work that nurses do in the North American system, so I got a lot of hands-on experience doing that.”
Spanning five years, the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery program is divided into three pre-clinical and two clinical years. Upon completion of the course of study, graduates are required to do an 18-month internship to be eligible for certification by the Medical Council and full registration to practice medicine.
Attending medical school in T & T also offered Baylis the opportunity to reunite with relatives and play mas’. In Barbados for her clinical studies, she met the majority of her family members who reside on the Caribbean island.
Baylis is last child of the late Gloria Baylis who left Barbados in 1948 and spent fours years in England where she trained in nursing and midwifery before moving to Montreal and garnering attention as the defendant in Canada’s first employment-related racial discrimination case.
Accredited in Canada, she applied in 1964 for a nursing position at Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel that was operated by the Hilton Hotel chain. Told there weren’t any vacancies which was untrue, she enlisted the support of the Negro Citizenship Association and filed a complaint with the Minimum Wage Commission.
In 1965, the Hilton was convicted of ‘illegally and knowingly refusing employment to Mrs. Gloria Clarke Baylis, committing thereby an offence provided by the Discrimination Act of 1964.’ This Act was the first piece of legislation in Canada that defined discrimination and made explicit reference to exclusion or preference on the basis of race. The hotel appealed the decision to have the conviction quashed for 11 years before the Court of Appeal upheld the original conviction in 1977.
While very proud of her mother’s accomplishments that included working as a nurse in Toronto and starting a company that imported and distributed medical products, Baylis still finds it difficult to talk about the family matriarch who died three years ago.
“She had a big influence on all of us,” said the primary care sports medicine and family physician. “She was a tough West Indian mom. It was sort of like ‘you got 95 per cent, let’s sit down and where did you miss the five per cent’. She was very good at keeping us disciplined and making sure that everything was in place for us to be successful. We suffered a lot of taunting and stuff, but I learnt a lot from our bi-racial parents. But my mom was just that juggernaut who never stopped and I sometimes wonder if she paid a price for that.”
Completing her family medicine residency at Dalhousie University where she developed a post-graduate sports medicine curriculum for the university, Baylis joined the Montreal Alouettes medical staff in 2006 and completed the Edmond Ricard Primary Care Sport Medicine Fellowship.
She’s also the Head Team Physician for Laval Rocket which is the Montreal Canadiens hockey farm team.
“I also work with the McGill hockey, basketball and other lower teams that aren’t professional,” Baylis pointed out. “You need to practice good sports medicine, but you have more money and resources to work with at the professional level. With the job, you have to offer coverage during the event of any emergency. You and maybe another doctor are there for injuries that happen like concussions or something more significant. You are also there like an hour before or an hour or two after to reassess injuries. If a player is ready to return after an injury, you have to officially clear them. You see them at the beginning of the season with a group of doctors and do a pre-season physical on everybody and at the end of the season, you do an exit physical and plan for their off-season. I also run clinics with them and am always available by phone to take care of their medical stuff like a bad cough or cold.
“With the other teams, I do the same things but with a little less money and fancy equipment. It is still the same basic concepts. I have a couple of clinics a week, I see players when they are injured or sick and cover their hockey games for emergencies. It’s very dynamic and I am on the go which better suits my personality than sitting in an office all day.”
With the Montreal Alouettes, Baylis assists Dr. Vincent Lacroix who has been the team’s head physician and medical co-ordinator since 1996.
“It’s less responsibility, but we travel with the team and cover some games away and all the home games,” she said. “I help out with the pre-season physicals, but the responsibility is less in that I am not organizing it.”
Based on a recently-released report by Grand View Research Inc., the global sports medicine market size is projected to reach US$15.2 billion by 2027, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent. The increasing demand is attributed to a shift towards a healthy lifestyle adopted by the younger population and more incidences of injuries among athletes and fitness enthusiasts.
Quebec Minister of Health & Social Services Dr. Lionel Carmant (l), Cote St. Luc city councillor Mitch Kujavsky, Dr. Penny-Jane Baylis, Grenada's Honourary Consul in Quebec Theodore Blaize & Gemma Raeburn-Baynes.
After working hours, Baylis enjoys reading novels ‘to clear my brain’, going to the theatre and outdoors events during the summer and spending time with her siblings and 92-year-old father.
“I have friends in Ontario where I will go once or twice a year and in Ottawa where we catch up and go to a cottage,” the McGill Family Medicine department faculty lecturer said. “I also challenge things that I am not good at. I am not artistically creative, so I have membership at the Montreal Museum of Arts where I go and see the exhibits when I can. I love Montreal in the summer, so I will buy jazz tickets to see a good show or I would just walk around and listen at night. I love comedy fests and I bought tickets last year for the Rogers Tennis Cup. I just love to be social and that’s very much like my mom. I just like to go, go, go.”
Baylis is a member of a highly gifted family.
Dr. Francoise Baylis is the Canada Research Chair in Bioethics & Philosophy and a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, Frank Baylis was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Pierrefonds-Dollard for four years before deciding not to run in the last federal elections and Dr. Peter Baylis is the Bow Valley Addiction & Mental Health Services clinical supervisor.
