The Blue Mountains council wants to up its game for physician recruitment.
At its meeting on Sept. 30, council voted to consider upping the town’s doctor recruitment budget to $100,000 when it debates the 2025 budget in coming weeks. Council also voted in favour of creating a local working group of citizens to study the physician recruitment issue.
At the meeting, council received a delegation from Brian Harkness and Robert Johnston of the Northeast Grey Health Clinics organization, which runs the two health clinics in Meaford and Thornbury.
Harkness and Johnston told council that competition to recruit new family physicians across Ontario is fierce. They said more and more municipalities are offering financial incentives to get doctors to set up a practice in their community.
“We’re going to have to provide some kind of incentives,” Harkness explained to council. “We need to find financial incentives. The cost is there, whether you like it or not.”
The delegates explained that there is a growing need for new doctors in the town noting that emergency room usage in Meaford from residents of The Blue Mountains has increased 26 per cent in recent years. They added that they are ready to work with the town to recruit 2-3 new doctors to town.
“Seventy-six per cent of our population is concerned about family physicians,” said Johnston. “It’s a big concern of our residents.”
In addition to financial incentives, new doctors are also attracted to practising in a team environment. The lack of a local family health team, where doctors receive administrative support and assistance from medical professionals such as nurse practitioners, dietitians and others, is a stumbling block to recruiting new doctors to the local area.
“One of the biggest challenges in our community is attracting a family health team,” said Johnston.
The two nearest family health teams are in Owen Sound and Collingwood and so far have not been willing to expand their coverage areas. Johnston and Harkness said the health clinic organization is interested in working with the town to explore the possibility of getting a family health team locally.
“If we don’t get access to a family health team, you’re not going to see one new doctor,” said Harkness.
After the presentation, council passed a resolution directing staff to include $100,000 in the draft 2025 budget for doctor recruitment. The resolution also endorsed the concept of a working group to take responsibility for the recruitment issue and asked for a staff report with recommendations for how to make it happen.
