Perspective on Health Care

Covid-19 Pandemic - How it Affects Physician Recruitment

COVID-19 continues to impact all sectors of business, especially healthcare.

Last year when the pandemic struck, independent practice licensing exams were originally postponed until fall 2020. At that time, family medicine residents were still able to practice with a restricted license, under the supervision of a practicing physician. Today, the final MCCQE2 exam remains postponed with no clear date of when it will be made available to eligible candidates. These eligible candidates are able to apply for an independent license, without supervision when all other requirements have been met.

This update to the licensing process brings much more certainty to graduating physicians looking to establish a family practice, take over for a retiring physician or locum.

Though we remain in a mostly virtual environment, we will continue to work diligently to bring more physicians and introduce them to this great community.

Attracting Family Physicians to Serve Greater K-W Residents

We continue to make significant progress with our physician recruitment initiative. Over the past year, we have been working with a number family medicine residents and established family practitioners who have interest or ties to our community. We have also been working with another large group of primary health care professionals who have expressed serious interest in K-W practice opportunities over the past six months. A number of them are established family practitioners who are currently practicing in other cities in Ontario and have plans to relocate to K-W.

Since January, 5 physicians have made permanent practice commitments to Kitchener-Waterloo and an additional number of locum physicians are serving our Region before making permanent commitments. Many factors come into play in terms of our success with attracting new physicians. First, we are an exceptional community offering many urban and rural lifestyle amenities that appeal to physicians and their families. We are also home to the Waterloo Regional Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and the Kitchener-Waterloo Family Medicine Residency Program allowing us to “grow our own” primary health care professionals. As well, a number of our established physicians are at retirement age and their patient rosters are perfect “established practices” for young family practitioners to take over.

While we take great pleasure in celebrating our progress, we realize that our physician recruitment efforts are far from over. Going forward, Kitchener-Waterloo will continue to be challenged with rapid population growth, a growing number of practitioners at retirement age and younger physicians who roster smaller practices as they look for work-life balance.

We would like to thank the Chamber volunteers whose time and commitment make our recruitment programs and events possible. The greatest of appreciation is also extended to our corporate and municipal partners whose continued generous support and investment make our physician recruitment efforts viable and sustainable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jenna Petker

Jenna is Physician Recruitment Lead for the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.