The township has set aside $200,000 over the next 5 years to cut down on family doctor wait lists
When finding a family doctor feels like winning the lottery, the township of North Grenville now has a winning ticket thanks to a new program.
The North Grenville council started the Primary Care Incentive Program in March. The program has now hired its first full-time family doctor who will work at the Kemptville Medical Centre.
Roderick MacPhee has been working as a locum in Kemptville since he graduated from medical school two years ago. He has promised to take at least 1,000 new patients off of wait-lists in the township, with the goal of seeing 1,500 in the near future.
“The people I work with at the clinic and the patients I see every day are all great, especially for a new graduate,” he said.Ottawa Morning on Thursday.
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The township of North Grenville has 18,000 people and is 50 kilometers south of Ottawa.
Mayor Nancy Peckford said that the community’s previous doctors have recently moved away or retired, leaving a hole in the system.
So, the council decided to give up to $200,000 over five years to two family doctors who would stay in the community for a long time. Over the next five years, each doctor will get $20,000, and MacPhee is the first of two they hope to hire.
“It seems like money well spent if it gives up to 3,000 people in our community access to a family doctor,” Peckford said.
In exchange, the new doctors have to take on at least 800 patients, spend 75% of their time running a family practice, and work in the hospital in Kemptville, which is the biggest town in North Grenville.
She said, “Our local hospital is heavily used, and that extra time from family doctors is a huge relief.”
A familiar stor
North Grenville’s situation is similar to that of many other Ontario towns, as incentives to bring doctors to rural areas are becoming more common.
The Ontario College of Family Physicians thinks that…more than 2 millionOntarians don’t have a family doctor, and the lack of family doctors is felt more in rural and remote parts of the province.
Even though there are no official numbers about the incentives doctors are offered in the province, CBC heard from multiple sources that the practice seems to be growing in eastern Ontario.
Peckford says that the biggest problems in North Grenville are the costs of moving and the skyrocketing prices of homes. She hopes that this incentive will help pay for some of the costs.
“This isn’t the end of the story for us,” she said. “We’re looking for a sustainable system for all medical practitioners.
“These communities are really rewarding. We’re a higher growth community with a very diverse population and a local hospital,” she said. “We have a lot to offer.”
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At the end of the day, MacPhee wouldn’t trade his new gig for city living.
“I really would encourage new graduates to come out to these communities and try it out and see for themselves,” he said. “It’s not only professionally satisfying but personally satisfying as well.”