By James Matthews
Haliburton County has reached out to the Eastern Ontario Physician Recruiter Alliance in its continued efforts to draw doctors to the region.
Wendy Welch, the county’s physician recruitment coordinator, provided an update to the upper tier council on progress thus far to attract physicians.
“We are now a team of 16 communities, all from our region of eastern Ontario that are all banding together to improve our reach,” she said.
That reach extended to the United Kingdom earlier in October. Each alliance member takes turns sending personnel to such far-flung events.
Welch will soon be sent to a family physician trade show of sorts in Vancouver in early November. She it will mark the first time Haliburton County’s effort has extended outside the province.
“There has definitely been an increase in physician leads and inquiries coming in about Haliburton County,” she said. “This is coming in after marketing our updated physician recruitment policy.”
Those changes included sweetening the pot for prospective doctors who may be on the verge of committing to working the county. The changes came into effect in May.
The county’s recruitment guidelines were thought to have been rigid when it came to stacking funding to lure a doctors and specifying minimum years of service for prospective physicians.
Recruitment staff wanted to be able to offer $50,000 in one year and $25,000 in another year. That’s as opposed to stipulated amounts per year of service.
Ovell said those two changes in the Haliburton Doctor Recruitment Guidelines
Haliburton County started in 2012 its Physician Recruitment Incentive Program for medical students, medical graduates, and physicians. An individual could receive $25,000 annually for up to six years if they committed to practicing in Haliburton County. There is a minimum four-year commitment.
Since its inception and up to May, the program provided $725,000 to eight physicians who have committed to practicing in the county as of the end of last year.
At the same time in 2017, County of Haliburton Doctor Recruitment Guidelines were established. Before May, the guidelines hadn’t been revisited since they were put in place.
Ontario communities continued since 2012 to evolve their incentive programs to meet the changing demands of interested physicians. To ensure its own competitiveness, the county modified its program to allow staff to be responsive when managing inquires and recruitment activities.
The county change its return of service minimum requirement from four to two years. It gave the economic development director authority over incentives to doctors and allowed funding to be paid out in different amounts per year.
“This seems to be driving the increase of activity,” Welch said of the program changes’ effects.
It also helps that the region has a new CT Scanner for diagnostic medicine, she said.
“That’s really turned up the interest,” she said.
In fact, 10 physicians have visited the region over the last three months. That makes a 400 per cent increase over the same period last year.
“It’s been keeping me pretty busy,” she said.
Two of the 10 candidates expressed interest in relocating and establishing fulltime practices in Haliburton County in 2025.
“Nothing’s for sure yet,” she cautioned. “Nothing’s in writing, but it’s looking promising.”
“It sounds like it’s working out in a positive way,” said Warden Liz Danielsen, the mayor of Algonquin Highlands.
