[New] South Frontenac Will Look At Proposal To Fund Doctor Recruitment

by Jeff Green

D r.'s Jeanette Dietrich (Sydenham Clinic) and Sabra Gibbens (Verona Medical Centre) as well as Deborah Krause, Executive Director of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team, made a presentation to South Frontenac Council, at their first meeting of the year on Tuesday Night (January 10).

The presentation (which was previewed in an article on page 1 of the Frontenac News last week) provided Council with a detailed view of the doctor shortage and a pending more acute shortage in Frontenac County.

It also made reference to a request for South Frontenac Township to fund a signing bonus, $100,000 over five years per doctor, to entice up to three family physicians to fill gaps in service in the township.

As Dr. Dietrich pointed out, Kingston has established just such a fund and it helped them recruit a number of family physicians in the last 18 months or so. Because Sharbot Lake is higher up on what the Ministry of Health defines as the “Rurality Index”, there is money for a signing bonus for a new physician in Sharbot Lake, provided by the province. North Frontenac and Addington Highlands top up the ministry money with contributions from each municipality, and have created a more robust incentive for the Lakeland Family Health Team in Northbrook.

“Verona and Sydenham are not eligible for provincial funding for a bonus, because of the way the Ministry draws the map,” said Dr. Dietrich.

“Without any kind of incentive program, the clinics in South Frontenac are not on a level playing field with the communities surrounding us” said Dr. Gibbens.

The most immediate need in the township is at the Verona Medical Centre, where Dr. Gibbens is caring for a roster of 2,600 patients (1,500 is considered a maximum per physician).

“When you have a clinic run by only one doctor, there is no support in case the one doctor gets ill, or has a family crisis,” said Doctor Dietrich. “Small rural clinics are clearly more vulnerable than larger ones with 10 or 15 doctors available to cover for each other.”

The Sydenham clinic has three physicians for a roster of 4,000 patients, but two of the three will be eligible for retirement within 5 years (one in 3 years and one in 5 years).

The presenters did not get into the details about how much money would be required from the township, but the need they outlined suggests that a fund of $300,000, built up over 8-10 years appears to be the requirement, just to maintain the service level that is currently in place.

The bonuses would likely be paid out at $20,000 per year for 5 years.

The physicians also said that the services of a part-time recruiter are also needed, and that will cost about $20,000 per year for the foreseeable future.

Members of council had a series of questions regarding the presentation.

Councillor Ron Sleeth asked “what can we do, as a municipality, as a start, to help with recruiting a physician?” The answer was to help create a fund in order to “create that level playing field in the region”.

Deborah Krause said that “we have all been doing this from the side of our desk, and hiring someone with the right kind of skills to do recruiting could possibly be something that should be looked at as a county-wide effort. And, as much as I've got a business background, this requires marketing expertise. Richard Allen, at the county, has already been a big help to us in terms of what he's providing. But I’m afraid we're missing something. We're missing the Caramilk secret, because that's not where our training is.”

Councillor Scott Trueman asked about the possibility of a Nurse Practitioner led clinic, and while all three services (Sydenham, Verona, and Sharbot Lake) have nurse practitioners working in their clinics, Dr. Dietrich said that the way the Ministry of Health funds Nurse Practitioner-led clinics is different from the way they fund doctor-led clinics, which would make it difficult to set one up in the township.

Trueman then asked, where the process to create a clinic in Inverary stood.

“It's been sort of in process for quite a while,” Trueman said.

“I'm not entirely sure. That was a couple of physicians in Kingston who were looking to expand and start a practice in Inverary. I haven't heard anything about it recently. Since that time, our physician services agreement with the Ministry of Health has changed and the guidelines around the number of clinics, and the geographic distance that a family health organisation can serve has changed. I don't know if they are still pursuing that, because I do not know if it fits the guidelines we have with the ministry. I have not heard anything from them, so I would not hang your hat on that clinic being created anytime soon.

As if to anticipate what Mayor Vandewal was going to say, Dr. Gibbens said “when I am talking to people about this, they say why are you coming to the township when healthcare is a provincial matter, and I agree, but the reality is that we have this situation where other municipalities are investing and in order for us to keep up we need to do the same. I recognise, we all recognise, this is not something municipalities are usually called upon to support, and yet we are stuck because there is a shortfall from the province and other municipalities are doing it.”

Mayor Vandewal said “I support rural doctors, don't get me wrong, but I'm getting a little bit concerned because we have other organisations coming to us, we have Southern Frontenac Community Services, and someone else came to me and said she is wanting to come to council for another service, and I am getting a bit worried that we aren't social services nor do we have any control over social services at all. Now, property taxation is going to be funding things that we shouldn't, historically, be funding.

"I would like to see something come back from our staff to say, okay, this is what we are going to do. So if you could reach out to Louise [CAO Louise Fragnito] who can bring a specific proposal, that we can focus on.”

A similar presentation is coming to Frontenac County this week, with a focus on the recruiter position.