Frontenac County Physician Recruitment Proposal Gets a Reality Check

Jeff Green | Aug 16, 2023

When doctors Gibbens and Dietrich from the Verona and Sydenham Medical Clinics, along with Deborah Krause, Administrator of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team, appeared before Frontenac County in February of this year, they outlined the need for support for an increasingly desperate physician recruitment drive for their clinics.

Dr. Bell, the lead physician in Sharbot Lake, is 80 and intending to retire, and Dr. Gibbens is the only physician in Verona with an unsustainably high patient roster for a single practitioner.

In response to their request for Frontenac County to begin setting aside money for a $100,000 signing bonus for a new physician, which is being provided in neighbouring municipalities, Frontenac County Council opted instead to provide $22,000 in the 2023 budget for a headhunter to find a doctor.

“I prefer the idea of a headhunter. I think you only pay them the $22,000 if they sign up a doctor,” said Frontenac Island's Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers at the time.

After a short investigation, Frontenac County staff have determined that the head hunter solution will not work.

In a report to the County Planning and Economic Development Committee, which is meeting this week, Economic Development Department Manager Richard Allen said that the only recruitment firm in Canada that does such work was not interested in the job.

“There is one such firm in Canada that specialises in physician placement, and after an initial request for services was submitted, the County was declined service. The service was declined due to the difficulty in securing a placement for rural health practices with no clear incentives available to potential candidates. In many other jurisdictions there is either more demand from candidates, or attractive incentives in place to secure those candidates,” Allen said in his report.

He went on to suggest that the county consider committing $22,000 each year toward recruitment with a view towards accumulating a reserve capable of matching the offer from other locations to provide an incentive for a new physician.

Allen's report also included a pitch for more staffing in his small (two member) department.

He said that the doctors who came to Council also asked for “assistance in preparing for and attending recruitment fairs, hosting familiarisation tours, providing social media support, and supporting spousal employment for interested candidates.”

These activities align with the work that economic developers are trained for, Allen said, but his department is “currently working at capacity” but if capacity were added to the department “to support Tourism or any other element of the operation, additional attention and support” for doctor recruitment could be taken on by the department,

After the committee considers the report this week, they may make recommendations to Council. The next meeting of Frontenac County Council is set for September 20.