Peterborough County’s Healthcare Advancement Coordinator Lori Richey came to Cavan Monaghan to provide an update on her efforts to recruit full-time physicians to the region on Monday.
She was hired to help stem the growth in the number of Peterborough County residents without a family doctor which is estimated to be roughly 32,000 and growing. This is a province wide trend.
Richey outlined some of the factors contributing to this shortfall. Family doctors reportedly spend three to four hours per day on administration, significantly reducing the number of patients they can see each day. Compensation for these professionals has not kept pace with inflation. She reported that over the last ten years inflation has risen by 25% while family physician compensation has risen by 6.1%. Medical students are not choosing family medicine as their career at the rate required to replace retiring physicians. Even those who pursue this career often avoid opening a family practise, choosing to work at a hospital where they do not have to establish a business.
Medical graduates are not trained to be business operators and many find the prospect of setting up a family practise unappealing. It requires finding a location, purchasing equipment, hiring and managing staff and establishing the administrative systems to ensure timely and complete billing and reporting in order to be paid. For their efforts, family physicians can expect to gross $300K to $350K annually, which nets out to roughly $100K to $125K net after deducting office overhead and taxes.
Local challenges to doctor recruitment include a lack of infrastructure for family medicine practitioners, a lack of accurate data regarding the number and location of residents in need of a family doctor, a lack of candidates, a lack of spousal employment opportunities, a lack of day care options, high housing costs, and Family Health Organization restraints.
Some communities have offered a variety of incentives to increase their appeal to new doctors, but Richey explains that it’s the community, not incentives, that is most compelling for new physicians. She is recruiting local ambassadors to help “sell” their communities to potential candidates that come to visit. That’s not to say she has any at the moment. In her first year in the job only four potential candidates have expressed interest in coming to Peterborough County, and none signed up.
A new collaboration between sixteen communities in Eastern Ontario is working to address some of the obstacles to doctor recruitment and actively seeking candidates at medical schools here and abroad. They are also lobbying for broad changes in the industry including medical centre infrastructure funding, daycare expansion and private partnerships to help create medical hubs where family doctors work with a team of pharmacists and specialists to provide comprehensive care.
While health care is not part of the portfolio of municipal government, lack of provincial support and the urgency of the problem is putting pressure on them to help. She made it clear that Cavan Monaghan does not currently have a location that could accommodate a new family physician.
Another issue is that Cavan Monaghan residents are not telling Richey that we need more doctors here. As of last week, her Local Needs Assessment survey indicated only 338 residents were looking for a family physician in the township. Based on statistics from other municipalities as well as anecdotal evidence, this number seems particularly low.
If you are looking for a family doctor close to home, complete the survey which is available on the Peterborough County website under the heading Your Health Matters – County of Peterborough (ptbocounty.ca), or call Lori Richey at 705-930-4765. The information will let Richey know that new family doctors are needed here. KG