Norfolk Council gives $100k to hospital for doctor recruitment

Recruiting physicians to any market in rural Ontario, or Canada for that matter, has become a challenging, often painstaking process.

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“Norfolk County has a lot of appealing characteristics, but the demand is incredible,” Todd Stepanuik, Norfolk General Hospital CEO, told Norfolk County Council at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Regardless of where you are in rural Ontario, there’s a significant maldistribution of primary care physicians compared to our urban counterparts.”

Alongside veteran NGH physician recruiter Carolyn Beam, Stepanuik was at council chambers requesting $100,000 to support physician recruitment efforts in 2025.

“Having an optimal primary care practitioner base for Norfolk County cannot be over-emphasized,” he said.

Stepanuik noted that there are 17,000 primary care doctors in Ontario, 34 of whom currently practice in Norfolk. About 17 per cent of county residents don’t have a family physician, which puts added pressure on the NGH emergency room.

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“The default for them is to use the emergency department,” he said. “We’ve seen a continued burgeoning demand for these services not only at NGH but West Haldimand Hospital for the past number of years.”

A motion to provide the funding passed with Councilor Adam Veri as the lone opposition. Councilor Kim Huffman was absent from the meeting.

The funds will allow the hospital to employ a full-time recruiter who will expect job fairs throughout the province and into the US carrying professional material that highlights what not just Norfolk General Hospital but all of Norfolk County has to offer. As has been the case previously, they’ll also host prospective physicians and their families for site tours at NGH and the Delhi Community Health Center as well as county landmarks.

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Previously, NGH spent upwards of $500,000 each year to recruit, but only employed a part-time approach. The facility receives no funding from the government to attract workers, limiting staff reach.

“Every single month of the calendar year 2025 there is an event to attend,” Beam said. “(But) taking those dollars out of patient care is difficult for me.”

The past year, Beam made her annual trips to job fairs in London, Ottawa, and Hamilton, and also visited Buffalo and Kansas City. The full-time hire will likely place some focus overseas as Beam noted 40 per cent of med-students in the United Kingdom are Canadians. NGH joined the Southern Ontario Physicians Recruiters Alliance – formed in Nov. 2023 – to further its cause.

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“There’s more that can be done, but there’s only so much that can be done part-time,” said Beam, who will soon retire, but a full-time replacement has already begun working.

“We are making progress, but the progress is going to be slow, it’s going to take some time.”

Council requested that Stepanuik provide regular updates on the recruitment process and how the money is being spent.

While council didn’t exactly provide a ringing endorsement before voting on the funding, councilors Alan Duthie, Chris Van Paassen and Mayor Amy Martin agreed the status quo wasn’t an option.

“I firmly believe this is about the spirit of collaboration between the county, the hospital and the primary care working group and looking at what can we do to differentiate ourselves to become the destination of choice for primary care physicians in the province,” Stepanuik said .

Council also agreed to retain $150,000 for future physician recruitment activities, pending the outcome of the province’s new Primary Care Action Team.

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