NATCHEZ — When Dr. Brad LeMay left Natchez, he took his clothes but he didn’t pack up his house.

“I knew I was coming back,” he said.

LeMay left Natchez in May 2013 after a contractual dispute between Jackson Heart Clinic — his then employer — and Natchez Regional Medical Center’s administration left him without a local clinic in which to practice. He moved to Hot Springs, Ark., where he had practiced with Heart Hospital of Little Rock.

But LeMay maintained his Natchez home and would return on the weekends, even helping some patients over the phone, he said.

“As soon as I knew they weren’t going to renew (the contract with Jackson Heart), I started working on a way to come back,” Lemay said. “Natchez is my heart, and I want to die here.”

Starting Sept. 1, LeMay will open a clinic affiliated with Our Lady of the Lake’s Louisiana Cardiology Associates. The clinic will be in the same office as his previous practice.

The new clinic will move some services — for example, echo cardiograms — into the office, while utilizing NRMC’s cath lab and working to build up nuclear medicine in the area, LeMay said.

“My commitment here is to do everything we can in this town, to provide as many services locally as we can,” he said. “You don’t need to be driving an hour to have a procedure if something is already wrong.”

While LeMay won’t work for Community Health Systems — which owns Natchez Community Hospital and is in the process of purchasing NRMC — he said he will do everything he can to work with them.

“We have a good medical community here in Natchez, and I think a lot of people lost sight of that in the debacle of the hospital bankruptcy, but that hasn’t changed,” LeMay said. “But for this new system we see to be successful, the people have to be confident. We have a chance to do a good job, and I know we are going to do it. I will be here to do the cardiology part of it.”

And that will mean being available to his patients, he said.

“Rich, poor, black or white, I am available day and night,” he said. “I really want to help this town.”

LeMay said his return to Natchez came not only because he loves it, but because he feels he can give back to his adopted home. At the height of the conflict over his previous contract, dozens of local residents showed up at the Adams County Board of Supervisors’ office to ask them to do something to keep him in town.

“I appreciated the support the town has given me, but that is how this town works,” he said. “People care about this town, and if they see you care about it, too, they will go the extra mile for you.

“Everybody likes to make a good salary, to be in a position where they are respected, but what drives me is being part of something. This is not just a job, it is where I want to be.”