Health and Social Services Minister Mildred Dover announced several initiatives today to assist newcomers and Island residents to access family physician services, and to recruit more physicians to the province.
A provincial physician registry will be established December 1, 1997 to assist in family medicine coordination.
"Newcomers and Island residents will be able to call the registry toll-free to request coordinated assistance in finding a family physician. They will provide information regarding specific needs, family size and geographic location. Staff will then attempt to match them with available physicians in their area, and place them on a waiting list," said the Minister.
The provincial Physician Resource Planning Committee has approved an increase in the complement of full-time emergency room physicians at the QEH from three to five to assist physicians with demanding on-call coverage and to help meet the needs of people having difficulty accessing a family physician.
Minister Dover advised that the Department of Health and Social Services is currently developing a survey of practising Prince Edward Island physicians and Dalhousie medical students to identify obstacles and develop possible new approaches to recruiting physicians to the province.
The Department of Health and Social Services will be meeting with Island medical students later this month at Dalhousie. In February, staff and Medical Society representatives will attend a job fair in Moncton to meet personally with Atlantic Family Practice residents. All residents will receive follow-up contact by Health and Social Services staff.
The Department continues to advertise aggressively in major medical recruitment publications and journals, and an Internet web site is being constructed to promote Prince Edward Island physician practice opportunities.
A Physician Practice Succession policy was developed in September 1997 to facilitate the orderly increase, decrease or replacement in the number of physicians practising within the physician resource plan.
Minister Dover advised that ensuring continuing physician coverage in rural areas and small urban centres is one of the major challenges facing health systems across the country.
"The problem is caused primarily by the inability of smaller centres to compete with larger ones which offer higher volume practices, greater access to technology and speciality services, and less demanding on-call coverage. Additionally, many medical student graduates are requesting more flexibility in their practice," she said.
"However," she said, " there has been a tremendous amount of progress achieved during the past several months, and we will continue to exhaust every effort until our full provincial physician complement is reached."
To date, eight physicians were recruited to Prince Edward Island in 1997. In January, psychiatrist Dr. Chris Stewart came to Summerside. In March, Dr. Ambrose Kennedy began practise in Eastern Kings, bringing the Region to its full physician complement. In June, radiologist Dr. Roy Tingley joined the Department of Radiology at the Prince County Hospital. In July, anaesthetist Dr. Steven Farmer and internal medicine specialist Dr. Karunakara Shetty began practise at the QEH.
In September, Dr. Marc Paris joined the QEH Department of Emergency Medicine, and family physician Dr. Jean Louis Paré came to Charlottetown as a long term locum.
Finally, in October 1997, a part-time Radiology position at the Prince County Hospital was filled through the recruitment of radiologist Dr. Clarence Campbell to the PCH.