Chatham-Kent council is being asked to approve some recommendations to recruit more family doctors.
A report authored by CK Director of Community Culture and Connections Audrey Ansell and General Manager of Development Services Bruce McAllister going before council Monday night is asking them to approve suggested funding options and ideas to support the Chatham-Kent Family Physician Recruitment and Retention Task Force in attracting more family physicians.
The suggestions include:
1. Provide a matching grant, to a maximum amount, in collaboration with the CK Ontario Health Team (CKOHT) or other partners to support the operational needs of the task force.
2. Formally create a Family Physician Incentives Reserve to allow the municipality to provide incentive funding directly to family physicians establishing practices in Chatham-Kent, with return of service agreements in place and provisions made to allow for pro-rated incentives based on full/part time work. Community groups may wish to provide incentive top ups from the proceeds of their local fundraising efforts.
3. Provide grants for the construction and/or renovation of new family health team hub facilities or for specific equipment requirements.
4. Explore the opportunity to align the work of the task force with health care sector workforce initiatives spearheaded by the CKOHT (e.g., HR Working Group), with the potential for the task force to become a working group of the Ontario Health Team.
5. Support family physicians and their families in selecting Chatham-Kent as a place to live and in settling and establishing connections to the community through continued support from the Community Attraction & Promotion division.
6. Support family physicians in establishing and running businesses through training offered by the CK Small Business Centre and other community partners.
7. Support the promotional work of the task force by leveraging municipal communication and promotion efforts.
8. Explore the potential for municipal contributions to a soft-incentive package.
9. Ongoing advocacy work.
Administration said if council approves any specific option, a business case would be developed to bring back to a future budget update for funding considerations. Council may also access one-time funds from reserves.
The total operating budget for the task force is $124,000-$141,000 and includes costs for marketing and advertising, recruitment fairs, learner engagement, retention events, a part-time recruiter, and administrative costs.
The proposed physician incentive for new family doctors setting up a full time clinic in CK would be $65,000-$100,000 per doctor and they would need to agree to provide their services for five years.
"If the physician leaves before the ROS (agreement) then a percentage of the incentive would have to be repaid," staff wrote.
Established physicians would also get anywhere from 3-12 months of rent and/or overhead costs subsidized to allow the physician to build their patient roster.
Councillors will also hear what the task force has achieved over the past few years.
The taskforce reported recruiting 15 family doctors from 2020-2023 with 60 per cent recruited from the CK Family Medicine Residency Training program; and newly recruited full-time family doctors received a $10,000 incentive to help them establish their new practice, while new part-time family doctors got $5,000 in incentives.
The task force also said it's working to recruit 13 new family doctors in 2024.
Competition to attract family doctors is fierce across Ontario.
In Chatham-Kent there are 32,421 people who don't have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, according to the task force.
The group also reported Chatham-Kent needs 45 family physicians based on current trends that include each doctor taking care of 1,500 patients and potential retirements.