Doctor recruitment was top of mind for a sell-out crowd April 29 as locals attended a round table about the Sunshine Coast's new Primary Care Network (PCN). The event was part of the Sunshine Coast Resource Centre Poverty Reduction Project’s “Be the Change” campaign.
While representatives from health organizations and authorities weighed in on the perennial issue of doctor recruitment – "We're competing for a scarce resource," Dr. Rob Lehman, chair of the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice told the crowd – they shared how the team-based collaborative model of the PCN could help recruitment.
The PCN team, once implemented, is to be an interdisciplinary network that includes social workers, counsellors, Elders, pharmacists, registered nurses, physicians and nurse practitioners.
The Coast has a recruitment working group of two coordinators and three family doctors. By the fall, they’re expecting five primary care providers (doctors or nurse practitioners) to arrive on the Coast – some of them are returning to the Coast, having worked here before, according to Lehman and Katie Clogg, PCN manager for the local Division of Family Practice. The Coast has 4,300-4,500 patients on the province’s healthcare registry patient wait list and patients will be pulled from that wait list once the new doctors arrive.
Asked how many primary care providers the Sunshine Coast needs to ensure everyone has one, Lehman estimated about five new family doctors. (He estimates there are 4,500-5,000 patients without primary care providers and most family doctors have about 1,000 patients.)
“But this is not a one-time thing,” stressed Lehman. “This is a constant thing because people retire and they leave and all those other bits.”
When it comes to recruitment, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) offers three months of housing for those who move to the Sunshine Coast, to allow recruits time to settle in and find housing. The health authority also employs a full-time housing coordinator and has a relocation expert, said VCH PCN manager Shari Myhill-Jones.
Pender Harbour Health Care Centre executive director Nick Gaskin said that in the three months since he took on his role, he’s had five “amazing” community members who have stepped forward to offer homes rent-free – bills only – for health care professionals for Pender Harbour. “That really, truly buys into that community health approach,” said Gaskin. “And the fact that the Pender Harbour community really do see that centre as their health centre.”
Gaskin said recruitment is his number one priority – “Every day, literally every day I come to work, I'm trying to find ways to find doctors to hire.” He sees PCN as making the area more attractive for physicians as there’s support and collaboration among a team of professionals (rather than it all coming down to the doctor).
In talking with already launched PCNs, Gaskin said he’s heard they’re seeing more attachment. “This team-based approach is attractive to not only physicians but other professionals.”
Lehman noted throughout the evening that the shift away from the fee-for-service model for family doctors is helping with bringing doctors back into family practice.
Also noted during the evening is that the PCN group is planning on launching a brand identity for a recruitment campaign soon.
