The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is happy with its doctor recruitment efforts this year but says there's still more work to do to cure a chronic doctor shortage in the area.
Fannie Vavoulis, CKHA's Director of Communications and Lead Physician Recruiter said the effort to fill doctor vacancies at the hospitals in Chatham and Wallaceburg was certainly ramped up this year and the outcome was good. CKHA has introduced 11 doctors and three resident doctors since August for the OBGYN, hospitalist, and the ear, nose and throat programs.
Vavoulis said the focus continues to land more doctors for the hospitalist program, anesthesia, and the critical care unit to reach the goal of a full complement in 2020.
"We are still hosting site visits for candidates coming from all across the country to visit our community and working very closely with our residents who come here and spend some time training with us," said Vavoulis.
Vavoulis said the process doesn't happen overnight and hopes the community remains patient.
"The physician recruitment process can take anywhere from six months to 18 months depending where the candidate is in their education and residency program and if they're coming from a different country," she added.
Vavoulis said applauds Chatham-Kent council for recently approving $100,000 and a task force to recruit more family doctors.
"This $100,000 allows us to expand our reach, allows us to do more marketing, and allows us to really brand physician recruitment in our community. So, very grateful and very excited that we'll see that money spent wisely and have a good return on investment," Vavoulis said.
Chatham-Kent has a chronic doctor shortage and the money will be used to attend family doctor job fairs, improve advertising, and give financial incentives to new physicians to cover their moving expenses and setup costs.
Vavoulis estimated the area is presently short about five to six family physicians. A report that went to council last month estimated 7,200 local patients currently don't have a family doctor and 20 more doctors could be needed over the next five years to replace those retiring.