Health and Social Services Minister Mildred Dover indicated today that several strategies are being employed to address the current shortage of family physicians in Prince Edward Island.
"The problem has intensified," she said "as a result of three concurrent temporary family physician vacancies in the Charlottetown area adding to other unfilled practices in Prince County."
Recently two family physicians left their practices for personal or family reasons; one physician moved out of province; and one has accepted a position as Medical Director for the province with the Department of Health and Social Services. Because other physicians are presently working to capacity, some people in the Charlottetown area are having difficulty accessing a family physician.
Prince Edward Island has experienced a relatively stable physician population over the years, and unexpected practice vacancies are rather unusual.
Ms. Dover said that a full range of initiatives are being employed to fill the vacant positions. In the meantime, several initiatives have been implemented to address the problem.
Practising Charlottetown area physicians have been asked to assist with the extra caseload until the vacancies are filled, and, whenever possible, they have responded in an extremely cooperative manner.
Following a request from the provincial Physician Resource Planning Committee, the Department of Health and Social Services is taking a more active role to assist in physician recruitment, and to assist physicians to plan replacements well in advance of their retirement or leaving their practices.
An aggressive recruitment campaign for family physicians and emergency room physicians is now being conducted throughout North America. Advertisements have been placed in major medical publications and journals. Ads and inserts have been placed in the Professional Association of Interns and Residents newsletters and targeted mailings. In addition, individual contact is being made with all 1997 family physician graduates from Dalhousie and Memorial University.
Approval has been granted, and additional QEH emergency room physicians are now being recruited to reduce on-call requirements for family physicians in the Charlottetown area.
Ms. Dover said that the current problem does not appear to be simply one of funding. "The physicians are not readily available, but when some are identified we will pursue their services with vigour."
Presently the Prince Edward Island complement for family doctors and emergency room physicians allows for at least five additional practitioners.
Minister Dover indicated that the challenge to recruit family physicians and specialists is not unique to PEI, but rather it is a distribution problem being experienced by rural and less populated areas across the country. Medical school programs are presently producing fewer family physicians. More of those coming out of school are opting for larger urban centres in Canada and the United States where the range of facilities and treatment opportunities are more extensive. These areas are better supplied with physicians.
Ms. Dover said that the current shortage is presenting itself in an acute manner because the three Charlottetown vacancies occurred at the same time. "Our goal," she said, " is to fill all the vacancies as quickly as possible with permanent or temporary physicians to relieve the current situation. I am very pleased that at least two physicians have indicated they are interested in coming to this province to provide temporary or full-time coverage; however, they cannot come here until later in 1997. The longer term solution will likely require a more comprehensive approach such as aggressive ongoing recruitment while exploring options that would provide quality health care with some possible alterations in our service delivery system."
For more information, contact Jean Doherty, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Dept. Of Health and Social Services, (902) 368-6257.