Easing the hiring hurdles
Removing physician complement to make it easier to bring new doctors to P.E.I.: McLane
The province’s removal of regional complements for physicians prompted some questions from Liberal Opposition Leader Hal Perry during question period on April 12.
Perry raised concerns that the removal of a physician complement would make it harder for rural regions, like his own district of TignishPalmer Road, to attract family doctors.
The complement is unique to P.E.I. It assigns a maximum number of doctors and specialists within the health system, as well as an apportion of these doctors by regions.
Critics of the system, including former Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam, have said that rather than ensuring rural regions have access to more doctors, this system hinders hiring.
The system requires increases to the complement be first approved by a physician resource planning committee. The regional complements were removed in September, while the Islandwide complement for family doctors was raised from 103 to 183.
Speaking in a question period exchange with Perry on April 12, Health Minister Mark McLane defended his decision to move away from the complement system.
“The complement is a hiring cap. I took it off – you’re darn right I did. It’s given the flexibility to our hiring to hire wherever they see fit in Prince Edward Island,” McLane said.
He said the change has helped the province hire 23 new physicians since the start
of 2024. He said the total number of physicians hired in 2023 was 24.
McLane said two of these new physicians are due to begin practising in Tyne Valley this year.
Perry argued that the complement system held benefits for rural regions.
“While this minister professes that the complement system was over-restricted, in fact, it was actually a symbolic promise to rural Islanders,” Perry said.
McLane said the complement was a system designed at a time when the province aimed to limit health-care hirings.
“We live in a free country. We can’t force people to work at a specific location,” McLane said.
McLane also claimed that
a letter he wrote to Health P.E.I., which instructed it to raise the complement to a degree that removed its limitations, was so popular that it
has been mounted on the wall and has been decorated with “bedazzles.”
A Health P.E.I. representative later confirmed to SaltWire that McLane’s letter was, in fact, mounted on a wall in a faux diamond frame.
McLane’s September letter raised the complement for family doctors to a level 20 per cent above what the province estimates it will need in 2032.
These projected estimates were provided by a forecast prepared for the province by health data analyst David Peachey.
The King government had attempted to remove complements entirely in 2022 when then-Health Minister Ernie Hudson introduced a bill that removed the regional physician complements. Hudson later pulled his own bill following criticisms by the Opposition Greens and Liberals as well as by media critics.
Speaking after question period, Perry questioned whether the province is targeting recruitment to vacancies in places outside of Charlottetown or Summerside.
“If they could assure me that they were going to have a focus on rural Prince Edward
Island, in particular the district that I represent, I would feel more comfortable with this regional complement being taken away,” Perry said.
“But I also do question why was it taken away in the darkness of night?”
McLane’s first public mention of the change appeared to have been in the legislature on March 12, months after he made the decision. At the time, McLane said the province no longer had a physician resource planning council. A CBC story on April 12 confirmed this.
Speaking after question period, McLane defended the decision, saying the physician complement often produced a “crazy process” that slowed down hiring after the departure of doctors.
He said the province has in place a $115,000 financial incentive for family doctors that choose to work in West Prince or rural parts of Kings county.
“It gets to the issue of forcible hiring. You can’t make a person work,” McLane said.