George Smitherman isn't doing nearly
enough to lure back the 3,000 Ontario physicians now
living and working in the US, according to OMA president
Dr David Bach. The OMA has been asking the government
to begin work on an ambitious physician recruiting and
retention strategy — which would include cash incentives
to bring Ontario docs back home — but has so far
failed to elicit a reply, says Dr Bach. "This is another
example where we are trying to give advice," he said,
"and waiting for them to take it."
With Ontario's health system now
at maximum capacity, the shortage of physicians is likely
to get even worse over the next several years, according
to a recent study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative
Sciences (ICES). The study, published in ICES's "Primary
Care Atlas" in November, predicted the aging of Ontario's
population should have led to an increase in the number
of primary care visits. But the number of visits actually
remained constant, leading ICES to conclude that the
province's primary care resources were too stretched
to allow for more visits.
Dr Bach estimates Ontario's currently
short about 2,000 physicians. But the physician population
is aging too, meaning the shortage could explode by
2010 to more than 3,000. Dr Bach says the health ministry
needs to do something about this now.
"These are not easy issues. They
have been around for a long time and we are taking an
active approach," responds deputy minister of health
Dr Joshua Tepper. Dr Tepper cites Health Force Ontario,
the government's newest recruitment communications strategy,
which he launched in the first half of 2006, as evidence
they're taking the problem seriously. The project's
website, including a job portal and marketing tools
has just come online (www.healthforceontario.ca).
Health Force Ontario is the government's
answer to the need for recruiting more doctors and seems
to address many of Dr Bach's concerns, but the government
and the OMA differ on several aspects of the strategy.
COME
BACK HOME
Dr Bach proposes a survey be sent to the 9,000 to 10,000
Canadian-trained doctors who've moved to the US, to
find out what it would take to entice them back. Three
thousand of those doctors were, or still are, licensed
to practise in Ontario. His goal is to convince 10%
of the 10,000 doctors to move to Ontario over the next
few years.
Dr Bach's proposal comes at a time
when Ontario is lagging behind the rest of Canada in
its rate of overseas recruitment: in 2005, 186 physicians
left Canada but 247 returned. Ontario itself broke even,
with 71 leaving and the same number returning, according
to an October report from the Canadian Institute for
Health Information.
Dr Bach thinks he knows what would
be needed to lure doctors to Ontario. "It may require
covering moving expenses and ensuring operating room
time and staff," he predicts, as well as financial incentives.
Dr Tepper admits he's aware of
the OMA's survey proposal and concedes it's an interesting
idea. The Ministry of Health, he explains, isn't ignoring
the association's advice, it's just that it's already
got a similar project underway. The ministry conducted
focus groups with Ontario-trained doctors in the US
last summer to find out why they'd left and what would
make them consider returning. "One of the interesting
things we heard was that nobody had reached out to communicate
before," he notes. "There is a potential pool of interested
doctors who haven't heard from us before." But Dr Tepper
says that offering guaranteed OR time and financial
incentives might not sit well with physicians already
working here. "Also, it's probably more than just money,"
he adds. "We're often not just recruiting a physician
back, but recruiting at least a partner and often a
family back."
|
