With Short -term family doctorsOntario communities must be more creative to attract doctors, and it only becomes more complex.
The College of Ontario family physicians reported in July that 2.6 million Ontarians were without a family doctor, against 1.8 million in 2020.
“We are at a time when too many families, too many Ontarians, do not have access to a family doctor, and that does not improve because we must see the solutions that will work to improve the ability of doctors of Family to see the patients being implemented, “said Jobin Varughese, President of the College.
Varughese said they saw too many new family doctors who leave the residence and leave family medicine in the first five years.
“We have also seen studies that 65% of doctors who responded to a recent survey take place over the next five years to arrest their practice,” said the president.
While millions of residents continue to be without family doctors, the pressure it exerts on communities to provide adequate health care is only growing.
In Brockton last week, which shelters around 10,000 people, residents started to queue at 2 am when they heard that a new family doctor would take new patients.
The mayor of Brockton, Chris Peabody, said that the new doctor had taken the first 500 residents who registered and placed 500 others on a waiting list when the doctor’s wife, currently practicing in the United States, obtains His accreditation to practice medicine in Canada.
Out of 1,015 who aligned themselves, Peabody said that only 15 had to be refused, with people who traveled more than 100 km to try to get on the list.
Over the past 20 years, he has said that their community has had a dedicated doctors’ recruitment committee to bring new doctors in the region, with incentives such as a municipal medical clinic and the forgiveness of student loans. In the past year, they have recruited six new doctors.
He said that even if he was satisfied with the success of the communities, they still have to bring three other doctors in the region, stressing the need to permanently compete with neighboring areas.
“It is a arms race between municipalities in Ontario,” said Peabody. “You just have to finance these committees, you have to find the money, you need to get the volunteers who will recruit and work very hard, and you hope the best for success.”
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He said that when communities do not have the resources to recruit doctors, they finally lose.
“It makes me nervous by reflecting on where the limits are to get the next three doctors?” How much money should we invest, and another city is in place? He said.
Peabody is pressure for a common funding base for the recruitment of doctors which is available for all municipalities to create a “level playground”.
Jill Croteau, specialist in the recruitment of doctors for the Niagara region, said that doctors have made doctors in the region, they sometimes have to offer up to a $ 100,000 signature bonus for a commitment to stay for a time defined.
A Ford government spokesperson has told Global News that “the facts speak for themselves” and said that Ontario “leads the country with the greatest number of people attached to a primary care provider”.
“Since 2018, our government has increased our investment in the connection of people in primary care of 50% and we do not stop there,” they said.
“We have launched the greatest expansion of the teaching system of medical schools in 15 years, we have made historical investments to defend more primary care teams, to break down obstacles to internationally trained doctors thanks to programs such as Practice Ontario by adding 100 new family doctors in rural communities and connecting us 120,000 additional people to worry about northern communities and rural people. »»
Varughese said that family doctors need more help if they want to continue to practice, pointing to artificial intelligence to help take notes and reduce the time that doctors spend on paperwork.
“This kind of thing will allow patients to be in front of their family doctor, allowing them to have all their attention rather than continuing to return to the screen to get the next thing that must be done,” he says.
Croteau said she had heard similar things from doctors.
“We have heard loud and clear of our doctors that the administrative charges in their practices have become quite important. They spend more time working on administration than really seeing patients, “she said.
She also underlined wages, saying that family physicians must be paid more by the province for the amount of the job they make.
Varughese also called for more support for family physicians thanks to mentorship and team care.
“Family doctors will be very commonly invited to take more and more, and ultimately, this well of good intentions will be dry, and we must start to fill this,” he warns.
The Ford government also underlined the recent appointment of Jane Philpott, who was responsible for a “mandate to link each person who wishes a primary care provider to one in the next five years”.
North of Toronto, Orillia, work is underway on a potentially unique solution to the question of attracting it and retaining doctors.
The local city council budgeted $ 500,000 and works to rethink space in its local municipal building to be opened as a family doctor and clinical without appointment.
In an attempt to attract new family doctors to the city, the local government plans to initially offer advantages to new doctors who join its municipal clinic and to cover things such as administration and rent costs, which can be an obstacle to the implementation of a new practice.
The idea is based on a similar plan of Colwood, BC, Coun. Ralph Cipolla told Global News.
“They actually started this process of the city itself by hiring doctors, putting them in services and so on, so that it is much easier for doctors to move or new doctors coming to Canada, Coming to Orillia, “he said.
Doctors could charge procedures via Ohip, as they would have if they had the practice, but other elements of the clinic would be managed by the city. Cipolla said the city was already in conversation with the government and had received indications that the plan would be acceptable to the province.
“The administration will be the difficult part,” said Cipolla. “Our second floor at the Town Hall is quite empty because we had a tenant who left so that they could all be welcomed at no additional cost added.”
The $ 500,000 planned by the city should cover the transition, said Cipolla, to have three or four doctors operating at the town hall.
In the long term, the city hopes that the change will bring more doctors in Orillia and will not be added to the results of the city.
“I hope the doctors will take over once they have their permanent office established here in Orillia,” said Cipolla.