Timmins looking at incentives to ease doctor shortage

Doctors are in high demand across the country and northern Ontario is no different.

Officials in Timmins said a health care breakdown could hit the city in the next five years if nothing is done to replace dozens of retiring physicians in both family and specialized medicine.

The impact of one family doctor's impending retirement on the local hospital, as another physician told city council recently, is adding more pressure to an overwhelmed health care system.

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"The reputation that the medical staff, the whole hospital has is excellent," said Dr. Lesley Griffiths, a family doctor and recruitment task force member.

"The care that people receive here is excellent. There's just not enough people to provide that care."

And hospital figures show the city's doctor crisis could get worse. There are currently 88 local doctors, 35 of whom are family practice and also work at the hospital. The city also brings in 144 travelling doctors.

As the health care system barely hangs on, up to 44 local doctors who care for up to 21,000 patients are set to retire.

That’s in addition to the existing shortage of 40 doctors, meaning the city needs to recruit 84 doctors in the next five years.

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"We really need to recruit at five times what our current recruitment efforts have yielded," said Kate Fyfe from the Timmins and District Hospital.

In the last five years, the city recruited only 20 doctors.

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"There's not a big draw for family practice because there's so much overhead costs," said Michelle Stevens from Centre de Sante Communautaire de Timmins.

That’s why Fyfe said incentive packages are critical, with the hospital helping with relocation, housing, education and a new interest-free loan program.

"Supports that will help the physician be settled and integrated into our community as quickly as possible," she said.

But that won’t be enough, with officials urging the city to partner on a grant of at least $60,000. Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau said the city needs to look at doing what it can to ease the problem.

"They have options and so anything that we can do to help them narrow in on Timmins, to be that No. 1 option, I think we should definitely be considering," Boileau said.

Timmins city councillor Cory Robin said local taxpayers shouldn’t bear the cost, but there are few alternatives.

"I don't want to use municipal tax dollars for it. I don't think it's what it's for. It's a provincial thing," Robin said.

"But we have an ethical duty to do what we need to do."

Council wants a breakdown on how the grant would work and how it compares to offerings elsewhere. Some councillors suggested combining public and private money will be an effective way forward. 

Ministry of health spokesperson Hannah Jensen told CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in an email, Ontario has added 12,500 new physicians to the workforce since 2018.

A medical school education expansion also saw 44 undergraduate and 63 residency positions added at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

"Our government is also expanding the Northern Ontario Resident Streamlined Training and Reimbursement (Nor-Star) program while breaking down barriers for internationally and interprovincially educated health care workers including the new Practice Ready Ontario Program that will add 50 new physicians this year," Jensen said.

As part of a $110 million expansion of interprofessional primary care teams, the province has earmarked $6 million "to connect people in northeastern Ontario to the care they need."  

"This year’s Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMs) results show the progress that has been achieved to expand access to ace and grow our health care workforce for years to come through our government’s investments into medical school education, interprofessional primary care teams and to tackle administrative burn out," Jensen said.

"This year, all of Ontario’s residency positions were filled with more students selecting family medicine as their top choice. At NOSM, a majority of residency students are studying family medicine."