A Short Term Solution For The Lack Of Doctors

The hiring of doctors normally happens around fall in Ontario when many institutions try to answer their shortage problem.

That is when communities with physician shortages begin staking out places at job fairs across the province, hoping to capture the interest of some soon to be practicing residents. Job fairs are prevalent in November and are usually located at Queen's University, the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Ottawa. It was noted that the director of postgraduate education in the University of Ontario's Department of Family Medicine stated that medical schools make sure their students will be recruited by communities who need them. Many communities who took part in the Ottawa fair are afraid of what will happen next even if they have full hires already.

In A recent survey at the University of Toronto, this indicated that 40% of new family physicians who graduated from that school intend to head south. Even in Deep River, a small town in the upper Ottawa Valley they felt the concern. Many are worried about how their 18 bed hospital will start operations. The past president of the Ontario Medical Association, as he handed brochures to students, said that with half the University of Toronto class going to the US, you wonder where it will leave communities like theirs.

There are less than 5% of Ottawa graduates move to the US according to him. He also says that geographical billing restrictions are a huge pressure for him. According to the rules doctors who set up in any of 4 major centers can be penalized up to 30% of the normal billing fee. He always teaches his students to take into account all options.

Many hopefuls can use the job fair as a place to learn about the options they have after school as so they can have more training in areas such as obstetrics, mental health, geriatrics, emergency medicine and anesthesia. Instead of liking the urban areas for practice more residents and students attending the Ottawa fair are leaning towards the rural areas. A doctor working outside the city will get a chance to offer more services. One can only handle so many cases in the city as they always refer cases to other doctors.

It is common the communities provide special incentives for doctors to get them to work there. Offers would be like free secretarial help and office space for a year. Chances are some recruiters are willing to knit sweaters for new doctors. According to them the US is still strong but they also have a lot to offer. Since the government is shouldering their educations they should not be able to leave that easy.

A balanced lifestyle is offered by Marathon, a community of 5500 on the north shore of Lake Superior. Small towns have good lifestyles which are good for doctors as they work all the time. Marathon still needs about 2 or 3 more doctors so that existing staff can take sabbatical leaves and work fewer hours.

The incentives in Renfrew, a town of 9000 located 100 km west of Ottawa are office space and practice as they are looking for more doctors. It has been observed that even those that head south will normally come back. They just have their concerns with the health care environment.