Recruiting Doctors Can Be a Challenge

So the article in today’s Globe and Mail was a reminder to me that while PEI is experiencing family doctor shortages so are many, many other places in Canada.  Particularily hard hit are rural communities and small towns.  It is becoming very hard to attract doctors to these types of areas.  It is interesting to note that many communities are dramatically increasing the incentives to attract doctors to these places.  Here are some of the recent packages that have made headline news across the country as reported in today’s Globe and Mail article:

• Digby, N.S. The town agreed to pay $187,000 to cover the medical school tuition of a husband and wife pair of physicians on the condition they practise in the community for 10 years.
• Kirkland Lake, Ont. Any doctor who worked there for a week received $8,000, plus airfare, lakeside accommodations, a car rental and free child care. Anyone who decided to make the move permanent received an established, fully paid-for practice.
• Moose Factory, Ont. Family doctors received an annual salary of $300,000, free housing, moving expenses, no overhead costs, eight weeks of paid vacation and four return trips home every year.
• Beaverlodge, Alta. An incentive program offered five years of property and tax exemption, plus $5,000 in moving expenses.
• Princeton, B.C. Physicians were offered a free car and golf membership.

While attractive benefit packages will help to solve the problem in some communities I wonder what it will mean for others?  How do we actually solve the doctor shortage? Can we solve the shortage?  (Demographics would indicate that we won’t be able to…so what does this really mean for the small towns and communities across Canada?) How will small communities compete with the larger communities?

According to a recent CBC news article PEI is the hardest Canadian Province to find a family doctor in.  Having relocated to the Island for a work related project almost a year ago now, I can fully attest to this fact.  It is for this reason that we still maintain our family doctor in BC. (Though this doesn’t help much when our children are sick with typical childhood related illnesses.)  While many in BC complain that the health care system is experiencing shortages and waitlists, I can honestly say that the it is nothing in comparison to the almost substandard medical care that exists here in PEI.  (No disrespect to the physicians that I know professionaly here on the Island.  The simple fact is that the system is just not set up for success unless you are very, very sick.)  There are shortages of everything and getting access to basic medical care without a family physician is almost impossible.  I have met more people in PEI than I can count who simply don’t ever visit a medical practioner. So much for the idea of preventive health care practices.

I love many things about PEI but it makes me frustrated to know that if anyone in my family becomes truly sick we have no choice but to go back to BC. (I’m sure the lack of adequate health care is one of the reasons so many people move West.)  PEI needs to do many things to step up the health care system and I understand that the new Liberal government is working on this.  I just hope they can hurry things up a bit…it is hard to live somewhere knowing that the health care safety net has so many holes in it.

Here is what the CBC article said.

Canadians looking for a family doctor might consider moving to Saskatchewan, but should steer clear of Prince Edward Island, a new physician survey suggests.

The National Physician Survey, which asked questions of nearly 20,000 doctors, residents and medical students across the country in 2007, found that 45 per cent of family doctors in Saskatchewan are accepting any new patient who comes to them for service.

By comparison, only two per cent of doctors in P.E.I. said they are doing the same.

Here’s a look at the percentage of doctors taking new patients in other provinces:

• Newfoundland and Labrador: 41 per cent.
• Manitoba: 32 per cent.
• Alberta: 28 per cent.
• British Columbia: 21 per cent.
• Nova Scotia: 21 per cent.
• Quebec: 19 per cent.
• Ontario: 14 per cent.
• New Brunswick: 14 per cent.

“The [survey] confirms that the dire shortage of family physicians and certain other specialists is a significant and ongoing issue for patients in all provinces and territories,” Dr. Brian Day, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Tuesday in a news release.

“Some areas are worse off than others. Health workforce planning must be addressed to improve access to health care for patients no matter where they live.”

The survey was done by the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. It was funded by Health Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Dr. Tom Gabruch, head of the Saskatchewan chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, said the province has a higher proportion of rural physicians than many other provinces.

“In rural areas, you don’t have the luxury as a physician of not accepting patients,” he explained. “It’s expected or anticipated you need to take on all the members of the community, so they can’t say ‘no’ out in small-town Saskatchewan.”

Dr. Alfred Morais, head of the P.E.I. chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, said he was surprised to see only two per cent of doctors in his province were taking new patients.

He noted that the situation may not be as dire as the numbers suggest.

“What I’m seeing in a lot of practices is they will end up taking new patients, but it’s usually in a different way. Maybe it’s a family member or a relative or a connection of someone they’re currently looking after.”

Some doctors will take new people moving to the province even though their practice is technically not open for all comers, he added.

Other findings of the survey included:

• 71 per cent of family doctors in Ontario said access to psychiatrists in the province is low (ranked as either fair or poor).
• 61 per cent of Quebec family doctors said access to orthopedic surgeons is low.
• 72 per cent of family doctors in P.E.I. said there is low access to ophthalmologists (eye specialists).
• 57 per cent of Saskatchewan and B.C. family doctors said access to CT scans, MRIs and other diagnostic services was low.
• An estimated 4,000 physicians are expected to retire over the next two years.
• 35 per cent of physicians plan to reduce their weekly work hours over the next two years.