Hospital in crisis: departing doctors say they're fed up

The first two doctors brought to our community by Sault Ste. Marie's physician recruitment and retention initiative in 2002 are leaving town, indicating they're fed up with conditions in Sault Area Hospital's emergency department.

"They're saying that they're leaving town because of the conditions that they have to work under," says Peter Vaudry, chair of the local Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee.

"They've said that they've been unhappy for more than a year and that nobody's addressing this," Vaudry said after a presentation to City Council last night. "I think it's incumbent on the hospital to address it."

Vaudry refused to identify the departing physicians, but said this is the first time that serious job dissatisfaction has been mentioned in exit interviews.

This latest blow to Sault Area Hospital's reputation was the third within 10 days.

On June 30, Jerome Quenneville, the hospital's president and CEO announced his unexpected resignation.

Yesterday, Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton and Sault MP Tony Martin held a joint news conference, citing recent administrative and medical resignations as evidence of a health care "crisis" in the Sault, while Sault MPP David Orazietti responded with an attack on the NDP record on health care that did little to address the specific concerns raised by Hampton and Martin.

The departing doctors, who were the first ones recruited by the present physician recruiting committee with hundreds of thousands dollars of annual revenues from the Sault's charity casino, told the committee they weren't renewing their contracts because of working conditions at the hospital.

Vaudry said the doctors who are leaving don't believe a new hospital will improve working conditions enough to make them stay.

Vaudry wouldn't get into details about what those doctors saw as problems.

"You'll have to talk to the hospital administration about that," he said.

But Vaudry expressed frustration that his committee is trying so hard to recruit physicians, while conditions at the hospital continue to deteriorate.

He said the City and the recruitment committee are doing their job, but the hospital is dropping the ball.

"This is turning into a revolving door recruitment and it's got to stop," Vaudry said.

A third emergency department doctor has also given notice that he's leaving but has not yet indicated his reasons for going.

Vaudry said this loss has made the doctor shortage in the emergency department almost as critical as it was in 2001, when the committee was formed.

"We are trying to get locums, we're trying to get people to fill in, but it's now a situation across the province where there are ERs where they don't have enough doctors," Vaudry said.

Loss of the third doctor from the Sault Area Hospital's emergency department will leave the hospital with single coverage in the emergency department more often, Vaudry said.

The crisis at Sault Area Hospital: full SooToday.com coverage

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