Representatives from the Pembroke Regional Hospital have provided an update to Pembroke City Council regarding physician recruitment. Pembroke Regional Hospital CEO Sabine Mersmann and Dr. Richard Johnson presented to council on Tuesday January 3rd, 2023. Mersmann says they have a goal to attach every patient who wants care to a physician and are working to get new doctors all across Renfrew County and the City of Pembroke.
The CEO of the Pembroke Regional Hospital says approximately 20 percent of residents in Renfrew County are not attached to a family physician or nurse practitioner, which is well above the provincial average of 10 to 12 percent.
Dr. Johnson is the lead physician for the Pembroke Family Medicine Teaching Unit, the Chief of Family Medicine at the Pembroke Regional Hospital and Clinical Lead for the Ottawa Valley Ontario Health Team. Johnson says the best advice for unattached patients is to register with Health Care Connect adding his clinic took 100 people off the waiting list in November.
With the recent retirement of several family physicians in Pembroke, Johnson says we are at the worst of the physician shortage right now and is optimistic the situation will be improved by 2025.
Johnson says in the last six years the Family Medicine and Teaching Unit has grown from a small office with four physicians and two residents to nine physicians and three residents per year that provides care for 10,500 patients. Johnson says 60 percent (17 physicians) are still practicing in the area five years after completing their residency.
Johnson also talked about the Northern and Rural Recruitment and Retention Initiative that would provide up to $80,000 in funding over four years for physicians who relocate to Renfrew County.
The local doctor and CEO of the Pembroke Regional Hospital believe the community has attractive models of primary care across the region, but say they have to convince more physicians to work here when there is a shortage provincially, nationally and internationally.
(written by: Rudy Kadlec)