Northumberland County council has approved spending $40,000 in an effort to bring doctors to the county.
At its regular council meeting last Wednesday (September 18), council agreed to dedicate a one-time investment into the development of a county-wide physician recruitment marketing campaign and a recruitment pilot project.
Like other communities, Northumberland faces a shortage of doctors and is intending to use the money to bring practising doctors to the county.
Half of the funding, $20,000, will support marketing efforts, which include creating a promotional video and a related campaign. The remaining $20,000 will be used for a pilot project to review physician recruitment and expand recruitment efforts.
“It could include information and footage that could be used for a variety of county-wide needs … but also specifically earmarked for physician recruitment,” said Northumberland County Deputy Warden and Port Hope Mayor Olena Hankivsky during the meeting.
“It would be general footage around the county, the quality of life in the county, but also be specifically targeted to potential physicians, their families and their children about why this is a unique place to be,” she told her fellow county councillors. “Currently, we do not have this kind of material.”
“We know from all the best recruiters in Ontario and in the rest of the country that this is a precursor — it’s foundational to any recruitment strategy,” Hankivsky said, adding that, in addition to the video, accompanying social media material is necessary.
The $20,000 for the recruitment pilot project component to bring a physician or physicians to the county could also encompass setting aside some of those funds “to leverage other sectoral representation in creating packages that would make the county an attractive place for physicians to live and work and play,” Hankivsky said.
The county’s community health committee, which met earlier in September, ultimately presented the recommendation that council endorse the Ontario Health Team of Northumberland’s proposal for a county-wide physician recruitment plan, support action items for physician recruitment, and endorse a regionally representative governance model for physician recruitment.
According to recent reporting by the CBC, municipalities in Ontario are offering significant financial incentives in what amounts to a competition to attract family doctors.
For example, Peterborough is offering a $15,000 recruitment bonus for family physicians who establish new practices in the city, while Huntsville is offering physicians a $60,000 bonus for taking over an existing practice and $80,000 for setting up a new practice.
Trenton-based physician recruitment program Docs by the Bay is offering $100,000 to new doctors or medical residents who are interested in setting up a full-time family practice in the area.
