A financial incentive program offered by the City of St. Thomas and Elgin County to attract and retain family doctors has doled out funds this year to seven physicians, including at least three new to the region.
It’s among financial incentives on offer across Ontario from municipal and county governments with the aim of curtailing growing doctor shortages and retaining family physicians.
In St. Thomas, the city and county have offered $33,000 in interest-free, forgivable loans for years as part of a Health Recruitment Partnership involving local politicians and other community stakeholders, including St. Thomas Elgin General hospital and the area Home Builders’ Association.
The loans can be used for office expenses and medical equipment, among other things, and are forgivable on condition the doctor provide at least four years of service in the county.
Last week, St. Thomas council endorsed providing funding to two new doctors — Dr. Wallace Ordiah and Dr. Aghogho Nathaniel Oyibo — who plan to begin practising in the city this year.
The city and county also offer a scholarship awarding $1,000 per year to up to 10 people enrolled in accredited medical schools, with an emphasis on those pursuing a career as a family doctor locally.
Urgent need for family doctors
There are many reasons for the shortage of doctors plaguing Ontario municipalities, said Lori Baldwin-Sands, a St. Thomas city council member and chair of the Health Recruitment Partnership.
One challenge is the large patient rosters of retiring doctors, which sometimes number as many as 5,000 patients, she said. New doctors coming out of medical school are looking for a better quality of life, and smaller rosters of between 1,000 to 1,500 patients, she said.
“This has created an urgent need in communities everywhere, because the doctors that are retiring are leaving a lot of their patients orphaned,” by not being able to have a new doctor take on their full patient roster, she told CBC’s Afternoon Drive on Tuesday.
“The last statistics that we had show about 10,000 orphaned residents without a family doctor within our community, and we know that the numbers are higher,” she said referring to both St. Thomas and Elgin County. “We’ve heard the number can go as high as 15,000, 20,000.”
At least 13 per cent of Ontarians didn’t have access to a regular health care provider in 2023, Statistics Canada data shows. Doctor shortages are more acute in rural communities, and one study by the Ontario College of Family Physicians found at least 670,000 Ontarians travel 50 km or more to see their doctor.
LISTEN: How St. Thomas is recruiting more family doctors
Afternoon Drive7:08St. Thomas boosts incentives to recruit new doctors
Council recently approved grants for new doctors arriving in St. Thomas. It’s one of many initiatives the city’s working on to bring more physicians. Laurie Baldwin-Sands is a councillor with the city.
In neighbouring London, the idea of municipalities offering financial incentives to attract doctors has garnered criticism from Mayor Josh Morgan, who believes they should be illegal, calling them a race to the bottom which pits municipalities against one another.
In March, London councillors voted to provide $50,000 for one year to the Middlesex-London Ontario Health Team, which is leading doctor recruitment efforts in the county. The health team had requested $80,000 over three years.
Other Ontario cities offering incentives includes Welland, which provides $100,000 to doctors who moved to the city to launch or take over an existing practice, with the promise they stay in the city for five years.
The $1 million program has attracted at least 14 doctors to the city since its 2023 launch.
In Huntsville, doctors are lured with an $80,000 signing bonus if they agree to work there for at least five years, while in Marmora and Lake near eastern Ontario, doctors have been offered riverfront housing and clinic space at zero cost.
“Some of them are very different. I have talked to some doctors that said they were offered a house for a five-year period. Some doctors are told they would have their tuition paid,” Baldwin-Sands said.
“We have, in St. Thomas and Elgin County, a quality of life that we feel is second to none. That’s why, next week, we’re hosting a group of medical students here in the community and showcasing some of the beautiful gems that we have.”
