At their Feb. 1 general committee meeting, Huntsville councillors voted in favour of using revenue from the Municipal Accommodation Tax to support the hiring of a recruiter to attract physicians and other healthcare professionals to the community.
Council voted unanimously to pitch in $25,000 annually for a period of three years.
The initiative is being undertaken by a task force created by The Muskoka and Area Ontario Health Team (MAOHT), a collaborative group formed in 2019 made up of 13 health and social service providers. MAOHT includes local hospitals, family health teams, nurse practitioner-led clinics, hospices, and home care providers.
“Being acutely aware of recent health care provider shortages, the MAOHT has created a Health Human Resources (HHR) Task Force that will focus efforts on recruitment and retention of primary care clinicians (i.e., family physicians and nurse practitioners) followed by specialist physician recruitment and other health care providers. This task force includes representatives from the District of Muskoka and surrounding Area Municipalities,” reads a report compiled by Huntsville economic development officer Lauren MacDermid who also sits on the task force.
“The proposed total annual contribution (including municipal, health care and community support) is $150,000 to $200,000 to cover salary, marketing, and other costs required to execute the duties of the position,” adds the report. “Using a dedicated recruiter to tackle health care human resource challenges is considered best practice. Financial incentives to attract care providers have achieved minimal results; however, having a dedicated recruiter whose role is to network and establish personal connections with potential candidates has been shown to significantly increase the likelihood of attracting and retaining dedicated care providers.”
Huntsville Councillor Bob Stone is also one of more than 30 people sitting on the task force which has represenation form all area municipalities. The task force is made up of subgroups looking at ways of attracting more health care professionals to the area. He said they are “collectively petitioning the province to get more funding. It’s a problem that is pervasive across the province and the country, of course.” But he said there are thousands of residents in Huntsville alone who do not have a family doctor and that is only expected to get worse as physicians retire. “And without a dedicated recruiter to actually spent the time, energy, [and] make those contacts, we will be falling even further behind. It’s desperate, and this is a small thing that we can do to help our hospitals and our citizens,” he told his fellow councillors.
Councillor Helena Renwick said she agreed with Councillor Stone but wanted to know what parametres would be put in place to determine whether funding the position was producing results. MacDermid said the funding is being requested for three years and said she believed he task force, which has been approaching community stakeholders for support, would continue to evaluate the positon.
“I think this is a great recommendation,” said Councillor Cory Clarke. “We’ve been all talking about the hospital and what’s coming next with that and of course we all know we need to get staff for that new hospital so I think it’s very important that we support this motion as a council. I certainly will.”
Council was told the amount to be contributed would either cease or by modified if funding is received from other sources.
You’ll find more information as well as suggested contributions and who has made a commitment so far, here.
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GOOD LUCK !!! YOU’LL NEED IT !!!
I think that it is an intelligent decision to engage a recruiter for sourcing and helping to attract qualified medical professionals to Huntsville. Here are three additional suggestions: a) tap into the property tax database (respecting privacy concerns) to find and enlist the support of medical professionals from elsewhere in the province who own cottages in/near Huntsville to help in identifying candidates for hire
b) ask if there are any residents serving on healthcare Boards of Directors who can help connect the recruiter with medical professionals
and c) have the recruiter connect directly with the medical schools across Canada (& in the Caribbean and in Ireland) where Canadians go to study to attract residents and co-op medical students.