Dr. JJ Soares
Director
Dr. Soares was born and raised in Bermuda. After attending Saltus-Cavendish shortly after amalgamation permitted students of Portuguese descent to enroll, he graduated from Saltus Grammar School in 1983. He attended Mount Allison University for a year before transferring and completing his undergraduate studies at McGill University in 1988 with a bachelor of science degree in psychology, achieving first class honours.
A year following, he was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to study medicine at Oxford University. While at Oxford, he was awarded a “Full Oxford Blue” in boxing – the highest honour awarded to student athletes, with which he is one of only four Bermudians to have ever obtained this distinction at Oxford.
He studied medicine at United Medical and Dental Schools of Guys and St. Thomas’ Hospitals, where he earned his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree. In his final year of medical school, Dr. Soares spent four months at Maua Methodist Hospital in Kenya, Maua Mgembe South near Meru, as a student doctor tending to pediatric patients, general medicine and general surgery.
After finishing at Guys, Dr. Soares completed two six-month internships: the first at Queen’s Hospital (then Burton on Trent) in medicine; followed by Stafford Hospital (surgery). In 1997, Dr. Soares trained for a year as a resident in dermatology and obstetrics and gynaecology at Hospital do Fundão near Rio de Janeiro. As the son of Portuguese-Bermudians John and Alberta Soares, this residency allowed him to connect with his heritage by learning to speak fluent Portuguese.
Dr. Soares was a registrar at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia from 1997 until he returned to Bermuda in 1999. Upon his return home, he was entrusted with Dr. Eugene Harvey’s practice upon Dr. Harvey’s retirement forming the Bermuda Medical Practice.
In 2007, Dr. Soares renamed the practice the Hamilton Medical Centre and moved to a new location behind City Hall, where he served as a family medical practitioner for 14 years. In 2021, Dr Soares completed a major expansion of the services offered, moving and renaming the practice HMC Burnaby Urgent Care & Medical Imaging.
Dr. Soares is married to Kim and has two daughters, Giselle and Eva, and a stepdaughter, Jasmine. He has a lifelong obsession with boats and engines, especially Seagull racing.
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