Townships continue to invest in doctor recruitment

Jeff Green | Apr 08, 2015

Anyone walking in to the waiting room at the Lakelands Family Health Team in Northbrook last Wednesday, April 1, might have thought someone had served some bad tuna at a joint Council meeting.

Four members from each of the Addington Highlands and North Frontenac Councils were sitting or standing, waiting to be called into the clinic. However, none of them seemed particularly under the weather; they were only waiting to spend some money and secure another physician for five years.

Each of the townships has committed $15,000 per year for five years to help pay the medical school expenses of Dr. Matt Dumas, who in turn has committed to remaining at the Family Health Team (FHT) for at least that length of time.

This is the second time that a physician has been encouraged to practice at Lakelands in this manner. In July of 2012, Dr. Anne Wilson began accepting patients in Northbrook to fulfill a similar five-year commitment, which runs until July of 2017.

There are currently five doctors affiliated with Lakelands, including Doctor Tobia, who started the practice decades ago, Dr. Peter Tam, and the venerable Dr. Alan Elliott, who works two days a week.

Lakelands Family Health Team is part of the North Kingston Family Health Organization and Dr. Dumas heard about the Northbrook clinic when he was working on a short term contract at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team in 2014, after graduating from Queen's Medical School earlier in the year.

What Matt Dumas found, when he visited Northbrook, was a location that seemed somewhat familiar to him.

“The land around here is pretty similar to where I grew up, near North Bay.

Matt Dumas lived in North Bay for most of his youth. He is a member of the Dokis First Nation, and he spent some of his summers on the French River, which runs between Lake Nipppising and North Bay, staying with family on the Dokis Reserve.

“The landscape there is very similar to what I find in this area, lots of lakes and swamps, a Canadian Shield wilderness area,” he said.

He is entering into this agreement with the Lakelands FHT with some experience, as he has been working for them on contract since late in 2014.

“The staff and the other doctors here have been more than welcoming, and there is a lot of knowledge in this community that helps me as I pursue a career in Family Medicine, which is what I really enjoy.”

In addition to providing service in Northbrook and one day a week at the Denbigh satellite clinic, Dr. Dumas is also maintaining ties in Kingston by teaching a course with the Department of Family Medicine at Queen's, where he is an associate professor.

According to Janice Powell, the executive director of Lakelands, Dr. Dumas has been well received by the patients he has been serving over the last few months.

“He is good at listening carefully to what patients say,” she said. “One patient in Denbigh came up to me as they were leaving the clinic one day, and said 'you have a good one there, you'd better not let him go.' And now we don't have to, thanks to the townships.”

The townships of North Frontenac and Addington Highlands have been involved in medical services for a number of years. The townships began looking at putting money aside for doctor recruitment 10 years ago, and when Doctor Tobia was considering turning his practice into a Family Health Team, which came to fruition in 2010, the townships were involved in the transition. Addington Highlands now owns the building in Northbrook where the Lakelands headquaters is, and rents space to the FHT in is Denbigh Community Centre.

The townships have continued to put money aside for recruitment over the years. With this latest investment, each of them will have spent $150,000 on direct recruitment.