Seeking Municipal Support For Physician Recruitment

Jeff Green | Mar 08, 2023

Dr. Jeanette Dietrich has been treating patients at the Sydenham Medical Clinic for over 20 years now, but she is still the youngest of three physicians in her clinic.

“I love my job,” she said in a phone interview last week, “I love my patients and I love providing care for them.”

She does not necessarily love all of the paperwork that comes from her role with the clinic, however, but she is resigned to it. It is more of a burden to find herself having to tickhandle through the healthcare system on behalf of her patients. Especially now when the system is full of delays and service models that are stressed.

“The constant struggle, trying to navigate the system, running around to try to get my patients in to see specialists, because there is no such thing as doing a simple referral now, is frustrating. It is also heartbreaking that we often have to say ‘no’ when we get calls from new patients who are looking for a family physician.”

And thanks to her other role, making sure that there are family doctors available for families in Frontenac County and parts of Lennox and Addington, is another concern of hers.

Dr. Dietrich is the lead physician for the Rural Kingston Family Health Organisation (FHO), which is a group of five medical clinics in the local region.

Those clinics include the Sydenham and Verona Clinics, and the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team, in Frontenac County, and the Newburgh and Tamworth Clinics in Lennox and Addington.

“The Rural Kingston FHO provides a funding model for the doctors in these clinics. Our patients are rostered to us, and we receive pay from the Ministry of Health for our rostered patients. This gives us the opportunity to address multiple issues with our patients,” she said. “It is a better pay model for the work we do today. It allows us to spend more time with our patients”

As part of her role as lead physician, Dr. Dietrich attends regional meetings and sits on committees regarding the current reality and future plans for medical service. These include the Ontario Health Team project, which she described as a ‘work in progress’, whose goal is to coordinate a side variety of services, including: long term care, home care, community support services, paramedicine, and family practice, in order to make sure services are being provided where they are needed.

For a number of reasons, the Rural Kingston FHO is in need of several physicians in order to serve the existing rostered patients in their catchment areas. The clinics in Verona and Sharbot Lake both have an immediate need for a physician, and the Sydenham clinic could be in the same position within five years.

That is why Dr. Dietrich, as well as others from the Rural Kingston FHO, have been appearing before local councils in recent weeks, working to develop a doctor recruitment strategy for the 5 medical clinics in the Rural Kingston FHO.

“There is a shortage of family doctors everywhere in the province. We wanted the councils to be aware of both current needs and projected needs, so we can work together to address them Other jurisdictions were on board, and the risk our communities face are very real, if we are not able to come up with a coordinated strategy,” she said.

As the result of the presentations, Frontenac County put $22,000 in the 2023 budget for doctor recruitment. The money is tentatively earmarked for head hunting services for at least one Frontenac County clinic to seek a doctor.

Because of its location, the clinic in Sharbot Lake has access to provincial money as an enticement for a doctor to come to work there, and the City of Kingston has put incentives in place, so part of the request to South Frontenac Council was for them to set up a fund.

“Most neighbouring municipalities have a $100,000 fund, payable over 5 years. That would cover about ½ of the student loan debt for a doctor coming out of med school into family practice.

While the presentations were timed to coincide with township budget deliberations, South Frontenac Council did not put money in their 2023 budget for doctor recruitment.

“We were not entirely clear what was being asked of us by the doctors,” said Mayor Vandewal, “and we did not discuss it as part of the budget. We can look at it later in the year, and if we need to find money for it in 2023, we can take it from funds that we already have available for this year.”

“I understand why South Frontenac might be reluctant to take this on, because healthcare is a provincial responsibility, but if there are incentives in surrounding communities, it makes it harder to recruit without them,” she said.

Other communities are already moving forward with recruitment plans.

Last month, Leeds and Grenville County, which includes ten municipalities, including Leeds and a Thousand Islands and Westport which border South Frontenac, decided to create a co-ordinated region wide health care worker recruitment strategy to serve its residents’ healthcare needs.

“Although contributions to finance front-line health care has traditionally been the responsibility of the province, funding health care over the past decade has been increasing in municipal budgets,” wrote Leeds Grenville County Chief Administrative Officer Raymond Callery, in a staff report.

For her part, Dr. Dietrich is saying that she has only a limited capacity to work on recruitment, because her responsibilities as a family doctor and Lead Physician for the Rural Kingston FHO take up all of her available time.

“Some form of community involvement, as well as financial support, would make a difference. We look forward to Council’s response to our presentation” she said.