Town council will consider a request for a $10,000 contribution to the Minto-Mapleton Health Professional Recruitment Committee during its 2015 budget deliberations.
Council deferred the request to the budget process at its Jan. 6 meeting, after hearing an update from recruitment committee officials.
“It is our sincere hope that the Town of Minto will continue to provide $10,000 financial support in 2015 for health professional recruitment efforts. Without your support, we will not be successful,” states a letter from committee chair Shirley Borges.
In their report to council, Borges and North Wellington Health Care recruiter Alison Armstrong noted the committee was successful in recruiting Dr. Phillip Deacon to replace retiring physician Dr. Chris Donald.
“Dr. Deacon is a welcome addition to the communities of Minto-Mapleton, providing primary care as well as hospital support in the form of emergency room, in-patient, obstetrical and surgical assist care,” the report states.
“Competition for a limited supply of rural physicians continues to be strong. Our focus over the next year is to recruit for retiring physicians.
“Right now it’s easiest to just do a one-for-one transfer. You know that a physician is retiring you just bring a new one in they just automatically do it. Trying to bring a new physician into the health organizations and you have to apply for it … they want to see a big long wait list before they’re going to allow that,” explained Armstrong, adding the committee works hard to stay on top of rapidly-changing approaches and policies.
“What we say today could change tomorrow,” she told council.
