Grey-bruce physician recruitment initiative moves forward

A community-driven effort to tackle physician recruitment and retention across Grey-bruce has received a funding commitment that will help launch the regional initiative.

The Grey Bruce Owen Sound Physician Recruitment and Retention Task Force held a community stakeholder meeting at Georgian College's Owen Sound campus on Wednesday. They came away with a commitment from Bruce Power to invest $100,000 over the next four years in the project.

“It is seed money that will help us attract other money,” task force member Pat Kelly said Friday. “I think there is a big opportunity for the corporate sector, the business sector to be involved, because major employers when they look at factors to help them attract a good workforce, housing is part of it but so is healthcare.”

Kelly said Bruce Power has provided information and support to them in the past, but the funding commitment takes that relationship to the next level.

“I think that is a demonstration of their confidence,” Kelly said. “This isn't matured by any means, but we know what it is going to take and it is going to require a focus on having a common approach, common messaging and finding the right people.”

Bruce Power spokesperson John Peevers provided a statement Friday that said the company is pleased to commit the funding and is very supportive of the work the task force is doing “to help ensure stable access to physicians and medical professionals in the area using a regional approach that will benefit multiple communities.”

“We understand the challenges related to drawing new physicians to our rural communities and we're doing our best to ensure we're doing our share to help address these,” the statement read.

The revived Owen Sound Greybruce Physician Recruitment and Retention Task Force has been working on the initiative for the last year and a half.

The task force originated in the Owen Sound area in the early 2000s, formed to recruit physicians and support the Owen Sound Family Health Clinic, which opened in 2011. The committee went dormant, with recruitment and retention efforts falling on the health team and its residency program, but has now been revived with a new focus on the regional picture. “The solution to the problem is not actually in Owen Sound, it is regional because we have a regional health-care system and we have a regional network of clinicians and providers, and nursing and community support,” said Kelly. “We quickly realized we were going to need to take a regional approach to solving the problem.”

The Grey Bruce Ontario Health Team has estimated there are more than 30,000 people in Grey and Bruce counties who don't have a primary care provider. The challenges are only expected to grow in the coming years with the combined population of the counties expected to grow by more than 20,000 over the next quarter century and many local doctors expected to retire. In a report last year, the task force estimated Owen Sound alone would require 12 new physicians over the next three years, when factoring in population growth, current and estimated orphan patients and retiring physicians.

Kelly noted that with work continuing at Bruce Power on its Major Component Replacement, TC Energy's proposed pumped storage project in Meaford and other green energy initiatives, not only will more homes be needed.

“Every time you build 500 homes you need a new doctor and we don't have them,” Kelly said. “We need 30 doctors right across this region today.”

The task force has spent the last year and a half talking to recruiters, doctors both young and old, locums and residents to understand what gets them here, what keeps them here and what makes the area a great place to work, so that they can develop their strategy, Kelly said.

Physician recruiter Kevin Kirkpatrick was hired and completed a physician recruitment and retention report for the Grey-bruce and Owen Sound area, identifying the work being done in the area currently and “what can be done collectively and as a community to scale up efforts.”

The report identified the many benefits the area has that makes it attractive to physicians, including natural beauty and outdoor recreation, a vibrant arts and culture scene, and a strong sense of community resulting in a high quality of life.

On the recruitment front, it highlights the need to consolidate efforts and the benefits of a regional recruiting strategy.

Among those are the ability to provide candidates with a broad range of career opportunities, leverage regional market knowledge and insight, and reduce costs by removing duplication and streamlining efforts.

Kelly said the task force plans to take the advice of young doctors in the community and focus on the big picture, which is making sure Grey-bruce is a really strong centre for rural health and well-being.

While other places are offering monetary incentives to attract general practitioners, Kelly said that is something this area can't compete with.

“Some of the key findings were that when you come up here it is not about the money that makes you come and stay, it is about having a network of colleagues who have got your back,” said Kelly. “The doctors we talked to said they were surprised with the resources and the quality of health-care services available here.

“Early in your career you can step into leadership roles and I think that is exciting for a lot of docs.”

Kelly said having the expertise of Georgian College's Centre for Changemaking and Social Innovation at the table will help help to attract other key players to the table, including the local hospital corporations and the province.

“I think it is a powerful example of what the community can do when you say, we are not waiting,” Kelly said of the group's work so far.

The regional work will not replace existing municipal recruitment efforts, but consolidate the common activities in a regional hub and by doing so supporting the municipal recruiters who can focus on their own specific needs.

“We need to be able to help our county and municipal officials to understand the complexity of the problems and it is going to require both a localized and a regional approach,” said Kelly.

“But we are also going to be asking for changes at the federal level for example, to make it easier for foreign-trained health professionals to be able to get through the immigration process and get through the settlement and approval process.”

Other areas in southern Ontario are already taking a regional approach to recruitment, including Niagara, Guelph-wellington and Kitchener-waterloo.

The estimated annual cost for the regional work is $150,000 to $200,000, which is recommended to be funded across the municipalities and counties. The proposed not-profit structure of the initiative would allow for additional grant funding to be sought and donations accepted.

Kelly said other regional recruitment initiatives all involve some county and municipal funding investment, and they have already sent letters to the counties and municipalities outlining their plans and requesting support.

“I think what we intended with the letter and the meeting is to say, `get ready, we are coming,' ” said Kelly.