Northeastern Ont. communities creating different incentives to recruit health-care workers

Anyone, anywhere in the world who refers health-care workers to fill vacant job positions at Blanche River Health could receive $2,000 as a reward.

It's part of a new incentive being offered by the facility, which provides health-care services to the northeastern Ontario communities of Kirkland Lake, Englehart and surrounding areas.

Like many other hospitals and clinics in the northeast, Blanche River Health is struggling to recruit and retain health-care workers, leading to a shortage. It's a problem happening province-wide, as over two million people in Ontario don't have access to a family doctor, according to the latest figures from the Ontario College of Family Physicians. 

"Recruitment in general for health care positions had really been a challenge already prior to COVID-19," said Jorge VanSlyke, president and CEO of Blanche River Health. 

"And we found that post COVID, we are getting more and more challenges to fill those gaps." 

VanSlyke said the hospital had already launched a community referral incentive system for current employees to refer people, but decided to get more creative. It has now expanded the initiative to the worldwide public. 

"Anybody in the world, if you can successfully refer a physician, or any of those hard to recruit positions like physiotherapists, critical care nurses, etc., then the only thing that needs to happen is that the successful candidate mentions you as the source of referral and you will be eligible for the incentive."

Positions the hospital is recruiting for include physicians, nurses, registered dietitians, pharmacists, physiotherapists and others. VanSlyke said Blanche River Health currently has just five doctors and is looking to recruit at least three or four more.

Also putting money on the table to recruit more physicians is the City of Timmins. Timmins city council has approved a Physician Start-Up Grant, which will offer up to $60,000 to newly recruited doctors to help them start a practice if they will move to Timmins.

"One of the barriers to relocating and setting up an office or a practice in Timmins and many other communities, is that overhead cost that comes with just the initial startup of a practice in a new community," said Michelle Boileau, the mayor of Timmins. 

"And so this is just an initiative that we're looking to do to be able to offer to help alleviate some of that resource pressure."

The Physician Start-Up Grant is for the next three years. The city will contribute $20,000 per year, with $20,000 coming from the Timmins and District Hospital, and $20,000 from industry partners.

Boileau said Timmins currently needs 40 more physicians to meet its current population's needs, and that number could reach 80 by 2029 due to expected retirements. She said the group is hoping to recruit at least 10 doctors per year for the next three years.

"The hope is to attract many more workers to fill current and projected vacancies. This is something that's going to be needed to ensure the viability of our local economy."

In Sault Ste. Marie, which also faces a shortage of physicians, city council members don't have financial incentives on the table when recruiting physicians. Instead, the city has expanded recruiting efforts to include nurse practitioners and physician assistants in its searches through the Physician Recruitment Committee. 

Sandra Hollingsworth, a Sault Ste. Marie councillor and registered nurse, said the city is aiming to have more health-care teams in order to lessen the burden on doctors.

"We realize that we need to work toward having more health care teams so that physicians can share the load of patients with other physicians that also have nurse practitioners on the team, that also have physician assistants, and also have physiotherapists and registered nurses and so forth," explained Hollingsworth. 

"More teams that would lessen the stress for all team members."

Hollingsworth added the city is also trying to create a more welcoming environment for doctors and their families when they move to Sault Ste. Marie, in the hopes of retaining them longer.

Sault Ste. Marie currently has 173 physicians across multiple fields. The city's Physician Recruitment Committee has recruited 211 doctors since its inception in 2002.

One area of the northeast that is not feeling the pinch of the doctor shortage right now is the City of Greater Sudbury. The mayor, Paul Lefevbre, says Greater Sudbury currently has 126 family physicians, though a preferable number would be 135 to 140.

"We're a bit low, but we're confident we'll be able to fill it up," said Lefebvre.

He added the city is expecting to receive approximately 15 new specialists and 12 new family physicians by this fall. Four family physician candidates are from the new Practice Ready Ontario program, which is a streamlined process for internationally trained family physicians to work in Ontario.

Lefebvre said Greater Sudbury doesn't have financial incentives for attracting doctors, but the city is working hard on ensuring community services are in place to support physicians and their families and make them want to stay.