A Norfolk County councilor has sounded the alarm over a lack of family doctors.
“Over the last few years, I’ve heard a lot of people talking about having a hard time finding a family physician,” Coun. Kim Huffman said. “I’ve also seen posts on social media from people in Port Dover and Waterford who are looking for a family doctor.”
She said people who have recently moved into the community often can’t find a family physician. As a result, they face traveling out of the area, she said.
“When a new family physician does open a practice, they’re scooped right up,” Huffman said. “The family physicians who are here, who have an established practice, have a large roster of patients because they’re doing everything they can to meet the needs of the community.”
A 2019 community needs assessment report by Haldimand-Norfolk Health and Social Services, found there are 57.8 physicians per 100,000 people in Haldimand-Norfolk compared to the national rate of 241 doctors per 100,000 people across Canada.
“It’s a very serious problem,” said Huffman, adding that the need is particularly high in the western portion of Norfolk.
She said the large size of Norfolk and neighboring Haldimand County is a factor in physician recruitment.
“Our community is a wonderful place to live,” Huffman said. “But our population is really spread out and we have some remote areas.
“When family physicians are looking to establish a practice, they tend to look at the larger urban areas as opposed to rural communities.”
Huffman noted that incentives are sometimes used to attract nurses to hospitals serving primarily rural communities. Perhaps something similar could be developed to attract family physicians, she said.
“As an issue for the community, I would rate this very high for both Haldimand and Norfolk,” Huffman said. “Access to health care is a huge social determinant of health.
“During the pandemic, we had people who weren’t able to navigate the system because they didn’t have access to a family doctor and that’s scary.”
The lack of family physicians was raised at a recent health and social services meeting. And Huffman brought the issue to the June meeting of the Haldimand-Norfolk board of health.
The board voted to have staff at the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit look into striking a physician recruitment committee that would include acting medical officer of health, Dr. Matt Strauss, and family physicians, among others.
“Health unit staff are on it,” Huffman said.
“They’re looking at it and, hopefully, we’ll have a template for the committee soon so we can get moving on this.”
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