President and CEO of the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC) Paul Heinrich knows how to ask for financial support.
Instead of asking for a handout from North Bay City Council without a proven track record or tangible results, Heinrich, accompanied by Chief of Staff and Vice President, Medical Affairs Dr. Donald Fung did the exact opposite by demonstrating that their approach is working, and then asked for less money than they received the first time.
Ten family doctors who also cover regular shifts at the NBRHC have accepted positions in North Bay in the last two years, with two more on the way. Fung says that a shift in recruiting tactics to keep Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) graduates in the city is working.
Fung says more attention to detail on matters such as help finding employment for the doctor’s spouse, financial incentives to help pay back enormous student loan debts incurred from 12 years of studying and training, plus a concerted effort to let the doctors in training know how much NBRHC wants and needs them has turned the tide.
Heinrich says that in the past few years, a near-crisis level of 12,000 “orphaned” patients has been reduced to 5,000. However, Heinrich says that the doctor shortage is not over. NBRHC calculates that due to attrition, 24 additional doctors will be needed in the next five to seven years.
To mitigate expensive financial recruiting incentives (some medical students receive up to $20,000 per year that they stay in North Bay) the NBRHC is asking that City Council budgets $100,000 per year for the next three years as a contribution to the doctor recruiting process. The health centre has contributed $491,000, while the City of North Bay previously added $175,000 to the cause.
Heinrich notes that the hospital still has enough left over from this year’s contribution from the City to make four payments to a new family doctor and that quarterly reports are delivered to City Council to account for where and how the City’s contribution is spent.
