A committee of Prince Edward County council has been asked for a significant increase in funding for its recently created physician retention and recruitment program, known
as County Docs.
At a special Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday the committee agreed to send County Docs’ request for $250,000 to upcoming budget discussions.
In last year’s budget council committed $100,000 to the program.
The extra $150,000 would pay for a fulltime physician recruiter and increase marketing efforts and the number and size of special recruitment events.
The County, as is every community, is short of family doctors and competition is fierce. Nationwide there is a shortage of over 2,500 family physicians while only
around 1,400 medical students graduate each year.
The actual physician incentive paid to new doctors would remain the same, at $100,000 over five years.
The Prince Edward County Family Health Team is now five physicians short and three more could retire in the near future.
However, one doctor has been successfully recruited to start in the fall, pending regulatory approval, and County Docs is working on two “really good leads” for others.
