Bruce Power puts $500,000 into doctor recruitment
By Liz Dadson

Health & Fitness

Kincardine Council

Saugeen Shores Council

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The area's major employer is weighing in on the doctor shortage in Kincardine and Saugeen Shores.

Wednesday night (Sept. 2), Kincardine council discussed a proposal by Bruce Power to donate $500,000 over two years toward physician recruitment in both communities.

More than 80 per cent of the company's employees and their families live in Saugeen Shores and Kincardine, along with a considerable number of pensioners, states the proposal. Therefore, the doctor shortage continues to be a significant concern to the company.

"There is a view that by working together, over the next two years, both communities would be in a strong position to secure three new doctors each," states the proposal. "We believe a more co-ordinated and aligned effort is needed that can best leverage our collective resources."

The company is prepared to fund the cost of a full-time doctor recruiter between Saugeen Shore and Kincardine. "We believe this person needs to be recruited immediately for a two-year period," states the proposal.

However, the company has set out some conditions:

*A joint working group of three individuals must be formed to oversee the recruiter (one from each community and one from Bruce Power);

*The working group will develop a fair approach to ensure both communities are being serviced equally;

*Each working group lead will report back to his/her respective organizations on progress;

*Both communities will appoint an individual to the working group by Sept. 11 so Bruce Power can make a special funding request in support of this effort:

*And the recruiter and working group will be focused on securing new doctors entirely for Kincardine and Saugeen Shores and will not take a position on other health care policy issues.

With support from Saugeen Shores and Kincardine, work could begin immediately on this initiative, states the proposal.

"The idea is to pool our resources to get more doctors for this area," said mayor Larry Kraemer.

Council was concerned that there are already physician recruitment committees in both communities and wondered if this new working group was going to divide those efforts even further.

"We have our own physician recruitment committee run by the Kincardine Physicians Group," said councillor Ron Hewitt. "I support this idea, but I would like to see a proper committee set up and not compete with the committee we already have in place."

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05/09/2009 12:03 AM

"My understanding is that anything done by this new committee would complement what we're already doing, not compete with it," said Kraemer. "The initiative has the support of the local doctors. It's good of Bruce Power to bring its resources to the table. We should help out where we can."

"It's a great opportunity for a co-operative effort between Saugeen Shores and Kincardine," said councillor Kenneth Craig. "It's long overdue."

He said this injection of funds by Bruce Power is appreciated, but there is more to the doctor recruitment game than just money. "I'm not sure how much this new committee can do for the recruiters other than to liaison with the communities," he said.

Hewitt said if each community is running its own doctor recruitment committee plus this new initiative by Bruce Power, "that's not a good set-up. We need to get all three committees working together or set up one committee that works together."

"If we can get somebody who can do this (physician recruitment) better, we could disband our own committee," said councillor Guy Anderson.

Council agreed to support the Bruce Power initiative, in principle, and contact the company about the next step.

In related medical news, following the closed session Wednesday night, council directed staff to prepare a "return to service" agreement for Dr. Michael Emond, with the agreement and bylaw to be considered at the Sept. 9 meeting.

Also, council directed staff to prepare a student bursary agreement for medical student Steven Poirier in return for a physician service agreement, to begin in 2013. That agreement and bylaw will also be considered at the Sept. 9 meeting.

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