St. Mary's Hospital will very likely experience more problems with emergency room (ER) doctor shortages this summer with no easy solutions to the problem in sight.
Dr. Jane Bishop, president of the Sunshine Coast Medical Society, said they are trying to look at doctor numbers and scheduling, but right now they are foreseeing a shortfall.
Bishop said while the Coast has seen replacements for doctors who have left, there has been no net increase in new doctors. Bishop said there are doctor shortages all across Canada, and the issue continues to be a local and global problem.
Through the hospital foundation, a rental home has been secured for the use of visiting physicians and hospital staff. Bishop said that alone is something quite wonderful. However, she said the community at large can do a great deal simply by making relocating doctors and especially visiting or vacationing doctors feel welcomed to the community.
"Doctors are people-oriented and they like being somewhere that is a friendly, cool place to be," she said. Bishop said people shouldn't negate the value of making vacationing doctors feel welcome or the impact that word of mouth has on the potential of attracting doctors to the Coast to visit, live or just spend some time working.
While the diminished doctor numbers will be somewhat alleviated next fall with the addition of three new doctors, that isn't going to help the Coast's problem for this spring and summer, she said.
According to Bishop, last summer Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) helped St. Mary's with ER coverage, but she said she's been given the impression that isn't going to happen again this year.
Dr. Richard Lupton, senior medical director within VCH, said last year was a one-off situation and the Sunshine Coast shouldn't expect a repeat performance.
Lupton said the help VCH gave to St. Mary's last year was unique and something that no other rural medical community has received, even though all rural communities are struggling and facing the same emergency room challenges as the Sunshine Coast. He said the reason why VCH helped with ER coverage last year is because VCH was contacted at the last minute and it was an emergency, but the expectation was for doctors on the Sunshine Coast to work together to try to avoid a similar situation this year.
He said part of the problem last year was that too many doctors took their holidays at the same time. "What other doctors do in other communities is arrange for locums or other coverage for their patients when they go on holiday," Lupton said.He said the Coast is quite lucky to have 22 doctors.
"My expectation this year is that they organize themselves so they don't take holidays at the same time. The reality is, they have to have someone available. It's part of being a physician," Lupton said.
A shortage of doctors in rural communities is a problem not just in B.C., but across the country. Lupton said one of the issues in ER coverage is that fewer doctors want to work in the emergency department because it doesn't pay as well as their work in a walk-in clinic or through private practice. He said the low ballpark figure of what the average doctor makes a year is roughly around $200,000. According to Lupton, doctors get $26 to $35 per patient and make more money with the volume of patients being seen in a clinic since there is less patient volume during an ER shift. Lupton said he has been advocating for a 24 per cent increase in ER hourly billing to offset this problem.
