Doctor shortage persists in Niagara
After 16 years of renewing annual contracts for Niagara Region’s physician recruiter, the job could soon be permanent.
With a continuing need for family physicians throughout the region, Niagara’s public health committee members voted Tuesday to recommend that a physician recruiter be hired as a permanent, full-time staff member, at a cost of $100,000 a year.
But after years of running a physician recruitment program, Regional Chairman Alan Caslin pointed out there is still a shortage of family doctors in Niagara.
There are about 260 family doctors in Niagara, and the region needs about 60 more to meet the needs of residents.
That number has been the same since 2011, Caslin said.
From that perspective, he said, the initiative doesn’t seem to be working.
“We’re significantly short of our target. If we keep doing the same thing we’re doing now, I don’t think we’ll see an improvement,” Caslin said. “If we can’t move the needle, the process is flawed.”
Because neighbouring municipalities have physician recruiters, Niagara’s medical officer of health Valerie Jaeger said the Region needs to do the same.
“If everyone else is doing it and you’re not, you’re not on a level playing field anymore,” Jaeger said.
Wainfleet Mayor April Jeffs, committee chair, said she suspects the retirements of some of the region’s aging physicians is countering efforts to recruit new ones.
“We’re getting them in as quickly as they’re leaving,” she said.
Thorold Coun. Henry D’Angela supported the permanency of the position.
“It’s a program I feel we should have and we should be supporting it. I think it should be part of our budget,” he said. “We’ve done it in the past, it’s worthwhile for us and it keeps us on a level playing field.”