A call for improvement with physician recruitment

Central Algoma Rural Health Care Steering Committee called Thursday night with Blind River District Health Centre CEO Gaston Levigne regarding a number of concerns with respect to physician recruitment and retention, and how those decisions were carried out and by whom.

“It was good to finally have a discussion with the Blind River District Health Centre Chief Executive Officer and staff where our questions were answered,” said committee chair and Mayor of St. Joseph Township Jody Wildman. “There still seems to be confusion with regard to physician recruitment planning but I am hopeful that this can be clarified with a more effective decision-making structure and process.”

Following a question and answer period, a presentation regarding the operational analysis of the the three sites - Matthews Memorial Hospital, Thessalon Hospital and BRDHC - was made to those in attendance.  

The presentation will be made to the public at a future date.

“I am encouraged by the frankness of the discussions that we had regarding how decisions are made about the scope of work of the new physician and medical professional recruiter,” said Matthews Memorial Hospital Association chair Sheila Campbell.

Campbell went on to say that she was pleased that members of the Huron North West Recruitment and Retention Committee representing the clinics in Bruce Mines and Thessalon as well as the Thessalon Hospital and the Algoma Manor were in attendance.

Their input highlighted how poor the communication has been between all the parties involved.

“To everyone’s surprise, we were informed by the BRDHC senior management team that the decision had recently been made to cut the recruiter’s hours of work and some of the recruitment fairs that she will be attending over the remainder of the year,” Campbell said. “This resulted from the inability of MMHA to commit to the dollar amount requested.”

Negotiations are ongoing between MMHA and the eight municipalities in our catchment area for financial support of physician recruitment.

An answer from the municipalities is expected in early May.

“Our council has always said that we would support physician and recruitment efforts as long as we understood the plan and could justify the costs,” said St. Joseph Township Mayor Jody Wildman. “We have made significant contributions to physician recruitment efforts in the past and will be supporting this year's efforts as well. However, we do have major philosophical issues with the incentives offered as part of these packages and believe the government should outlaw these practices.”

Those present at the Rural Health Steering Committee Meeting agreed that a new structure was needed - one that would see representatives from the four groups using the services of the recruiter would meet to determine what recruitment efforts should be pursued and how the costs should be shared.

MMHA feels it is not reasonable for them to be expected to contribute as much as the other three groups.

“Our recruitment needs for physicians and locums is considerably less than that of the other areas,” Campbell said. “And our two signatory physicians do much of their own arranging of locum coverage. They have worked hard to ensure that most of the locum coverage is handled by just two other physicians in response to the concerns of their rostered patients.”