Duane Hicks
The local doctor recruitment committee would like more money from the town, but council says it doesn’t want to pay more when the rest of the district isn’t paying its fair share.
At a budget meeting Monday afternoon, council received a letter from the Fort Frances & District Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee requesting the town increase its annual contribution from $69,000 to $80,000.
The committee has been very successful in its recruiting—getting three new doctors here late last year, with another possibly starting this spring, as well as a new surgeon coming this summer.
While the committee has a recruitment fund, it has dwindled with each successful recruitment as the committee has to pay out when a new doctor signs a contract to work here.
Upon signing a Return of Service agreement for two years, the committee provides each new physician with a $60,000 financial incentive, a $10,000 moving budget, and an additional $7,000 in lifestyle items (i.e., marina slip, golf and gym memberships, entertainment series, etc.)
The committee also has to pay for a full-time recruiter, as well as to pay for locums to cover emerg, locum housing, site visits for potential recruits, and more.
“It’s not a surprise that the fund is really being drained,” said Coun. Wendy Brunetta, who sits on the physician recruitment committee.
But members of council balked at the idea of paying more when discussion turned to the fact that other municipalities in the west end of the district have not contributed to physician recruitment, with the exception of Emo, which contributed $5,000 twice a number of years ago.
“We’ve basically been supporting the west end of the district with doctor recruitment,” said Mayor Roy Avis, noting the issue always seems to “bounce back into the lap of the Fort Frances council.”
Mayor Avis said he felt the doctor recruitment committee is doing “a very good job,” and there’s been a lot of recruitment activity with tangible results.
“But I do believe that it should be a district initiative. It shouldn’t be just a Fort Frances initiative,” he stressed.
“And until we get there, I have concerns about raising our contribution.”
Coun. June Caul said she feels the town should pay more because the concentration of population is here, but all district residents (including First Nations) use the doctors here.
She added that hopefully, with new doctors here, it will cut down on the cost of locums down the road.
Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig said doctor recruitment dollars are built into the town’s budget—and have been for decades—and doesn’t foresee a time when the town is not participating in doctor recruitment.
But he added council still should “try hard to get others to participate.”
Mayor Avis agreed, noting the town can continue to pay its current share but he’d also like to see district municipalities pay for doctor recruitment on a per capita basis.
“That’s the fairest way to do it,” he reasoned.
Coun. Doug Kitowski said he doesn’t have an issue with Fort Frances paying for doctor recruitment when local residents directly benefit from it.
“But I have a problem with us paying and everybody else getting the benefit of our dollar,” he argued.
“If nobody else is contributing, they shouldn’t be allowed to use the system. Period.”
Coun. Ken Perry said he’s “not in favour of putting more [money] in until somebody else puts some in.”
“And I would even go so far as to say that Nelson Medicine should put some in, too, because they are the beneficiary of us getting doctors here,” he added.
Council will bring up the issue of sharing doctor recruitment costs this Saturday during the Rainy River District Municipal Association’s annual general meeting in Bergland, where local physician recruiter Todd Hamilton and Riverside CEO Ted Scholten are scheduled to make a presentation.
The doctor recruitment grant the town pays is, in reality, a capital grant for La Verendrye Hospital—the result of a long-standing agreement between the town and hospital.
The agreement stems back to 1941, when it was struck between the Sisters of Charity and the town.
Its purpose was to provide electricity and telephone service without charge to facilitate the construction of the hospital here.
The agreement was re-worded in 1975 to specify La Verendrye Hospital and not Sisters of Charity.
It then was tweaked again in 1983, when the amount paid was increased to account for rising water, sewer, and electricity costs.
In the mid-2000s, Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. suggested the grant be earmarked for physician recruitment and retention purposes to help address the doctor shortage—and the town agreed.
