Belleville City Council is being asked to consider ways to better support and, in turn, retain its physicians, including a setting up a special fund.
At its meeting on Monday, councillors will receive a report from Manager of Physician Recruitment and Retention, Karen Poste.
The report discusses the difficulty family doctors have due to a lack of funding from the province and, even though it is a provincial issue, the city must do more to remain competitive.
Family doctors are expected to run their practice like a small business even though they are not technically one, and because of that, spiralling costs without an increase in provincial funding make it difficult for them to continue.
And while the Physician Recruitment and Retention program has been very successful, attracting 53 doctors to Belleville over the years, with 87% of them still practising or about to start practising here, it’s estimated that almost one quarter of the city’s population – more than 15,000 – will be without a doctor by the end of 2024.
The report notes that the pool of doctors across the province is also dwindling as other communities and provinces step up their game to attract doctors.
In response, Poste is recommending two ways the city can provide support to our local physicians.
The first way asks the city to take on the detailed work of formulating recommendations for health care reform in Ontario and joining with others such as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to lobby the province on behalf of doctors for changes.
The second way would be the development of the Family Physician Appreciation Fund (FPAF) that could provide some financial support for things like taking on new patients, buying new equipment or software, and supporting training costs and benefits for staff, to alleviate some of the current financial strain – at least until provincial funding levels are increased.
The report asks that the recommendations be brought back to council for consideration during 2025 budget deliberations.
