Brighton council is backing an “anti-poaching” approach to doctor recruitment in the region.
A staff report related to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) about regional recruitment of physicians went before council in April. The MOU is a proposed agreement between the Municipality of Brighton, the City of Quinte West, the City of Belleville, the County of Hastings, and the County of Prince Edward.
Its purpose is to set forth the “basic principles and guidelines” under which the communities will operate and “support regional physician recruitment and retention.”
“As the people of Brighton know, we have worked very hard on the physician recruitment file, with some pretty significant success,” said Mayor Brian Ostrander. “We, of course, in the meantime, have had some doctors leave, so we know we need to continue that churn of physician recruitment.”
However, no one wants to be “poaching” locally, explained Ostrander, who referred to this MOU as essentially an “anti-poaching document.”
It isn’t uncommon for physicians in Trenton, Belleville, Prince Edward, Cobourg, et cetera, to have Brighton residents attached to their rosters either, noted Ostrander.
The consensus seems to be that this MOU is aimed at ensuring more continuity of care.
Recruitment and retention of physicians is a high priority to most municipalities across Ontario – many municipalities provide financial incentives to prospective physicians to establish a family practice for a specified period of time, writes CAO Elana Arthurs, in her report to council.
In that report, it also notes that last year, a recruited physician who had just completed their service period was leaving Belleville to join Prince Edward County for additional financial incentives; and how this led to discussion among area communities and their respective physician recruitment and retention committees about signing the MOU.
All the communities have their own physician recruitment programs – all with the goal of making a dent amid doctor shortages in the area. But these programs are also about physician retention. Simply put, the hope is when a physician is recruited, they stay beyond their original commitment, reads the MOU.
While each community recruitment program will remain as independent organizations responsible for the recruitment and retention of family physicians in their specific area, the parties have agreed to operate in a manner that improves and facilitates physician recruitment for the entire region, reads the documentation.
The documentation does also note that sometimes doctors need to make career or lifestyle changes unrelated to incentives.
“In those cases, we ideally want them to stay in the region, even if it’s with a different municipality.”
There is also some discussion underway about some sort of eastern Ontario physician recruitment effort, noted Ostrander.
“I know that our friends in West Northumberland Physician Recruitment … are speaking to Docs by the Bay – who we use in the Quinte region – and there is a want to be more collaborative and try and find out how we can bring doctors to the east.”
(Written by: Sarah Hyatt)
