Three doctors short
Physician shortages persist in West Prince as retirements loom
A family physician practising in Tignish has begun informing his patients he plans to retire around September, 2019.
“I’ve told loads of people that, and I’ve also told them I’m doing my best to find a replacement,” said Dr. Declan Fox, who is posting advertisements in newspapers in Ireland.
He anticipates expanding his search to England.
“I’m advertising in Ireland first, because that’s where I know, and where people know me, and I might have a better chance there,” said the Irish doctor.
Dr. Philip Hansen in Alberton has given notice he plans to at least semi-retire in July, 2019. There has also been indications O’Leary physician, Dr. Gil Grimes plans to retire in 2020, but when his office was contacted, he declined comment. The Tignish Health Co-op board is paying for Fox’s ads.
“The co-op board here is very keen to work with me and try to find a replacement.
“I have told them that Ireland and England are probably their best chances of getting a replacement,” he said, noting doctors there are under a lot of pressure.
Fox acknowledged the physician recruitment secretariat with the Department of Health is also looking for replacements to fill existing vacancies in West Prince and will be looking to replace retiring doctors, too. “There’s no bureaucracy – well, nothing like back home,” said Fox. “There’s a lot of freedom here to try to change things and do the best for my patients; even just the way we work here in the office.
“We have a lot of freedom to basically try to run in a more efficient manner.”
Dr. Andre Celliers, Health P.E.I.’s interim executive director of Medical Affairs, welcomes Fox’s involvement in the process.
“We strongly encourage him to do that. I believe recruitment has actually got three legs – it’s the community itself, it’s the doctors of the area and then, of course, it’s the system.” Most pressing for the system are the three existing vacancies in West Prince. There are two openings for family physicians and one for an emergency room doctor.
There are also vacancies in East Prince, Celliers said, but the highest priority at the moment is on the West Prince openings.
The total complement of physicians for West Prince is 12.
The Tyne Valley-based physician, Dr. Roy Montgomery, is currently assisting with in-patient care in Alberton. Montgomery will be returning to Tyne Valley once the situation is resolved.
He said there are doctors who are showing interest in the West Prince openings. Site visits have been held and more are planned.
“If we can hire more people we can make the situation in West Prince more stable,” said Celliers, who also serves as chief of Family and Community Medicine and Hospital Services West.
With the region already three physicians short and retirements looming, Dr. Hansen sees the urgency in finding replacements.
“Trouble is, the whole country is looking for (doctors).”
“As I get closer to July 1, 2019, I’m definitely going to have to make some decisions as to what I will be doing,” said Hansen, who has been part of West Prince’s medical team since 1984.
He is giving some thought to continuing on in some capacity, possibly even with a walk-in clinic.
“I don’t know if I will retire, but they wanted me to give a date, because they said they would have to have some planning in order to replace me,” he said.
Hansen is concerned about changes in the health-care system which he feels have resulted in some patients moving to Summerside to be closer to a hospital that will provide the level of care they were once able to obtain locally.
Two of the vacancies stem from Dr. Herb Dickieson’s retirement last year and Dr. Charles Dewar’s retirement six years ago.
Cellier acknowledged patients of those two physicians were asked to remain off the provincial patient registry, because their needs can still be serviced by the health clinic at Community Hospital. “They do have access to care there. They have access to the lab, they have access to the nurse practitioners who work there.” Celliers said investments are being made to double the region’s complement of nurse practitioners to four.