Brantford council looking to work with county on physician recruitment

City councilors want to work with their Brant County counterparts to bring more family physicians to the community.

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Councilors on Tuesday referred a detailed report about doctor recruitment to the city-county joint services committee for further discussion at a Dec. 4 meeting.

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“The world of (physician) recruiting has really changed and I don’t think that under our current model we can be competitive with other communities,” Coun. Rose Sicoli said. “I think that through collaboration we can do something really great.

“There’s a lot of value in having both communities on the same page and doing the best we can for both communities.”

Sicoli made the comments after hearing a presentation from the city’s Family Physician Recruitment Task Force at a Tuesday meeting of the planning and administration committee.

Lebené Numekevor, director of medical affairs at the Brant Community Healthcare System and a member of the committee, told advisors that physician recruitment across the country has changed drastically in the past year alone.

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“We are currently in a physician recruitment crisis and I can say that for our area, prior to 2023, we’d lose an average of one to two family physicians a year.

“In this year alone, we’ve actually lost five family physicians either retiring, moving to other areas or going to do hospitalist work. “

A hospitalist is a physician who works in a hospital caring for inpatients.

Numekevor said that four others have told her they’re looking to retire within the next one or two years.

Meanwhile, of the 12 physicians recruited to come to Brantford so far this year, 10 are performing hospital work while two are working in family medicine.

“The majority of family physicians aren’t actually doing family practice work,” Numekevor said. “They’re actually looking for other opportunities in hospitals such as hospitalist, emergency work or surgical assisting.”

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The shortage of physicians across Canada in 2020 was estimated to be nearly 17,000. That number is projected to increase to nearly 44,000 by 2028, Numekevor said.

“We are not training enough physicians to keep up with the aging population,” Numekevor said.

It’s estimated that by 2026, one in four Ontarians – 4.4 million people – will be without a family doctor. Part of the reason for the shortage is that only two of every 10 family medical residents actually go into family practice.

Numekevor said Brantford is short the equivalent of 14 to 16 family physicians.

“We know we have to make some drastic changes in order for us to properly serve our community,” Numekevor said. “We need to change the way that we recruit and retain family physicians.”

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There needs to be an increased focus on supporting current physicians and providing supports to new physicians moving to the area.

The task force is looking for the funding provided by the city for physician recruitment to increase to $200,000 in 2024 and $245,000 by 2025 from the $110,000 the city has been providing to the task force since 2009.

Most of the extra money will be used to cover the costs of attending recruitment events including some in the United States.

The request will be reviewed by councilors during their 2024 budget deliberations.

“I think the best thing we can do is create a situation where doctors can come in and just practice medicine,” Numekevor said in response to a question from Coun. Richard Carpenter. “It’s really daunting for a new graduate to figure out rent, utilities, hire staff and figure out all of those things that are part of the overhead in addition to practicing medicine.”

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