There will be no flatlining of efforts to recruit new doctors to Minto.
Minto council, at its Aug. 2 meeting, heard efforts to recruit new doctors to the community should be stepped up with the pending retirement of at least two doctors in the near future.
That was the message Shirley Borges and Alison Armstrong, members of the Minto-Mapleton Family Health Team and Health Care Recruitment Committee, presented in a recruitment report to council.
“We’ve been working on recruitment because we’re going to be in a position in the next five years where a couple of doctors will retire,” Borges told council.
With the potential retirements, Borges added it is essential to recruit new doctors because the remaining doctors would be unable to take on patients whose doctors are retiring.
Borges said the community also needs new medical facilities as an incentive to attract new doctors.
Recruitment efforts to date have included bringing medical residents interested in rural medicine to gain first-hand experience in what practicing in a rural community means.
“Rural physicians have large responsibilities and a lot of medical students don’t know this,” Armstrong said.
Six Western Ontario medical students attended the recent Rural Discovery Week programs, along with four students from Norwell interested in pursuing careers in the medical profession.
“A major recruitment vehicle is providing good experiences to our medical students and residents,” the report stated.
“Rural learning experiences for medical students and residents increase interest and understanding of rural practice.
“Our hope is the more medical students and residents we can introduce to the Minto-Mapleton area the better the chance we will have at recruiting the medical students/residents.
“This is a strategy that has worked well in neighboring communities,” the report added.
“Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in medical learner placements.”
Students are exposed to all aspects of rural medicine, including emergency procedures, regular hospital routines and births.
The pair credited local doctors in assisting with recruitment. That effort also included activities outside medical facilities to give students a better understanding of what rural life has to offer. Doctors also assist at recruitment venues outside the Town of Minto.
“Our physicians are really our best recruiters,” Borges said.
The representatives also stressed the need to make Minto residents aware of services currently offered and available. The plan is to have regular stories in local Newspapers, including topics about how hospitals are changing, what a Family Health Team is, and nurse and doctor recruitment.
“Getting out in the community is essential,” Mayor George Bridge affirmed.
Borges and Armstrong also thanked council for its continued support.
“We need to move quickly (on recruitment efforts) because there’s a lot of competition,” Borges said.
Armstrong added, “For every one of our physicians who retire you need two or three to replace them.”
