FAMILY PHYSICIAN RECRUITMENT STILL NEEDS SUPPORT

NEWS RELEASE

Family Physician Recruitment Still Needs Support

Mayors’ Day Fundraiser Friday, May 3

For immediate release

The Southern Georgian Bay Family Physician Recruitment Program is on target to meeting its five year recruitment goal after recruiting five family physicians in 2012.

“However, our work is far from over” explained Physician Recruitment Officer David Gravelle.  “Our success in 2012 may have given people the false impression that our work is done. Our recruitment plan forecasts that we will need 18 full-time family physicians to meet the needs of our community by 2017.”

“We’ve had one physician retire in the last 18 months, and a couple of doctors have reduced their workload on their way to retirement. However, we haven’t seen a large group retire yet,” said Gravelle.  “When that happens, it will take approximately two new physicians to replace each one of them.  That’s the reality we live in today.”

Midland native Dr. McKenzie Blake started her family practice at the Huronia Medical Centre in January 2012, and was joined later in the year by Dr. Hanni Darwish and Dr. Katie Cuttini-Darwish.  Dr. Abo Akintan joined Dr. Rob Stubbins practice in Penetanguishene in July of last year, while also providing Geriatric Medicine services to Georgian Bay General Hospital’s Penetanguishene site.  And, Dr. Natasha Pinto committed to the community last year, and provided vacation and leave of absence support to local family physicians while her spouse was completing his psychology degree.  She will be starting a family practice and rostering new patients this spring.

The Southern Georgian Bay Family Physician Recruitment Program is embarking on its second year of a five-year plan, with the goal of recruiting three full-time family practitioners in 2013.

“We are very confident we will meet that target, with two family physicians already signed on to open practices in the coming year,” confirmed Gravelle.  “We are currently in discussions with a third candidate, who recently toured our area and is doing some training at our hospital in May.”

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Dr. Wendy Davie will be joining the Bayside Medical Centre in Penetanguishene in August.  She will be accepting new patients and assuming many of the patients of Dr. Akintan who will be closing her family practice this summer.  Dr. Akintan will be remaining in the area in the short-term providing Geriatric and Hospitalist services at the two hospital sites, while her spouse searches for employment. Dr. Anila Mathai will be starting a family practice in the fall. Dr. Mathai, and her spouse Dr. Ian Wagg, a local GP/Anesthetist and Emergency Department physician, are considering various practice locations.

Formal announcements regarding start dates and how to join Dr. Davie’s and Dr. Mathai’s practices will be made later this spring, as the physicians must complete their final exams and secure licenses with the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“People always wonder if family physician recruitment is necessary, or is someone else’s responsibility” said Gravelle, who has been in the role of recruitment and retention officer for six-and-a-half years.  “My answer is, if we did nothing, we would be putting 14,000 residents at risk.”

The Family Physician Recruitment Program is a volunteer led program that not only recruits physicians, but provides educational opportunities to medical students and residents in partnership with GBGH, Waypoint and local family physicians.  The volunteers also raise money to support the recruitment effort and are active in sourcing employment opportunities for physician’s spouses.

The program’s annual spring fundraiser is the Mayors’ Day in Support of Family Physician Recruitment. It will be held at the Brooklea Golf and Country Club on Friday, May 3, 2013 with 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games silver medalist Shelley-Ann Brown as the keynote speaker.  Brown, of Pickering, Ontario thrilled the hearts of Canadians pushing her teammate Helen Upperton to a Silver Medal win in Bobsleigh.

The event will include Olympic and winter sport décor, an update on the family physician recruitment efforts, and an inspiring presentation by a world-class athlete and Olympian

To learn more about Shelley-Ann Brown, visit her website at www.shelley-annbrown.com

There will be a breakfast presentation at 7:00am and a lunch presentation at 12 noon.  Tickets are $100 and are available for the 7 a.m. breakfast or the 12 noon luncheon. A tax receipt for the charitable portion will be issued by the Huronia Community Foundation. To order tickets, contact Susan Robillard at 705-533-2757.

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Media Contact:

David Gravelle

Physician Recruitment and Retention Officer

Southern Georgian Bay Family Physician Recruitment Program

(705) 526-1300 ext. 5466