A shortage of family physicians in Barrie is nothing new, but it's something officials with the Barrie Family Health Organization admit is a growing concern as more doctors retire or close up shop due to fatigue.
Drs. Tracey Tessaro and Heidi Deboer-Fennell, who are the co-lead physicians with the Barrie Family Health Organization (FHO), tell BarrieToday they have many more physicians with large practices in the FHO in Barrie who are retiring or leaving due to physician burnout.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for those physicians to find a replacement before their retirement or leaving date," the doctors co-wrote in an email. "The process of completing a roster transfer is prolonged and can take eight months for signatory physicians to receive approval due to processing delays across the sector including with internal processes, the Ministry of Health, and the CPSO (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario).”
This, in turn, results in patients without a family physician when those physicians leave.
“The majority of our FHO physicians have full rosters and their practices are not open to accepting new patients and any physicians who are accepting patients have long wait-lists,” acknowledged Tessaro. “We actively credential physicians interested in joining the Barrie FHO and will continue to do so.
"However, the funding for the Barrie and Community Family Health Team is not reciprocally increased when we add new physicians to our organization and as a consequence, the wait-times for patient care for the BCFHT programs are prolonged further," the local doctor added.
Another way they are actively recruiting family physicians in Barrie is through the Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU). Many physicians who train at the FMTU decide to stay in Barrie and practice family medicine here when their training is complete, Tessaro and Deboer-Fennell said.
“We also continue to work with Ontario Health to find ways to increase access to primary care for unattached patients in our local area," they said.
Corinne Maxwell is the physician recruitment co-ordinator for the Barrie Area Physician Recruitment (BAPR), a group charged with bringing physicians, health-care, community and municipal leaders together to develop and implement strategies to train, recruit and retain physicians for the community.
The task force meets twice a year to review the current situation and to be updated on recruitment progress, said Maxwell, noting that, as the physician recruitment co-ordinator, she's always working behind the scenes and consistently has a number of job postings for family physicians posted on websites, such as barriedoctors.ca and HFO Jobs.
She's also in the midst of introducing some social media platforms for advertisement as well, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
“BAPR is also very involved with supporting the RVH Family Medicine Teaching Unit through the University of Toronto by promoting relationships with RVH (Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre) and the community,” she told BarrieToday, adding each year the FMTU welcomes nine new family medicine residents to the program. “There have been 118 residents since the beginning with a total of 99 graduates thus far.”
This past June saw eight graduates, five of whom went on to do a third year of enhanced skills training, with the three others remaining in the community and filling locum positions in a number of local physician offices, Maxwell said.
Maxwell said she knows of three practices that have been successful in finding replacements to take over their patients over the last year.
“The process is not for them to report it out to me. I have found out kind of by chance as well from residents looking for new doctors stating they’ve received notice their family doctor is closing their practice, so I usually follow up and ask who it is,” said Maxwell, adding she doesn’t have an exact number of practices that have been shuttered in the last few years. “There were three that were closing, but then didn’t have to because they (found) replacements.”
Coun Gary Harvey sits on the task force, which met last month. He told BarrieToday that, historically when a family physician in the area retires or closes their practice, they have notified the physician recruitment committee at least six months to a year in advance.
“Since the committee’s existence in 2008, I have been told they’ve been able to accommodate and fill every vacancy that was created by these retirements," he said.
Maxwell said a recent review of numbers indicates they would need approximately 30 family physicians to cover the approximately 45,000 residents currently without a family physician in Barrie, Innisfil, Oro-Medonte Township and Springwater Township.
“It’s very significant, however, if you compare it to neighbouring communities or provinces, we are kind of sitting at what seems to be the norm," she said.
In the past year, Harvey says the task force has been successful in recruiting 12 family physicians and a whole host of specialists dedicated to the hospital.
“It is a struggle sometimes, depending on what they are looking for for their quality of life — sometimes people may want to go east or west as opposed to staying here in Ontario," the city councillor says. "It is very competitive, but in comparison to other parts of the province, it’s been money well spent to have this dedicated co-ordinator recruiting doctors, otherwise (things would be) way worse than where we are now.”
Maxwell said she understands there are a lot of people currently without a doctor, and says there are a number of things they can do to try to get themselves on a roster.
“Right on the (our) website there are step-by-step instructions… first contacting me. I receive emails on a daily basis from residents in the area looking for family doctors and I know one currently accepting new patients,” Maxwell said, adding she also directs residents to Health Care Connect, a site that can assist with their search for a family health-care provider.
“I think it’s important that Barrie residents know that we are doing all that we can and that it’s definitely a priority for us as well.”
