As Belleville City Council approved an incentive to bring another new Nurse Practitioner to the city, the city’s Physician Recruiter says she looks forward to a day when municipalities don’t need doctor recruiters.
However, Karen Poste says it is a harsh reality these days when there just aren’t enough doctors and nurses to go around.
Poste says Belleville does have one of the better incentive programs in the province being offered to physicians but the province needs to do more.
“The province needs to open up more residency positions, they need to open up more medical school positions, they need to offer more funded positions for Nurse Practitioners. If there were more funded positions, there’s no doubt we would have more nurses going to get the Nurse Practitioner certification. Those three things could significantly change the landscape of healthcare in Ontario.”
Poste says she’s been working with about 60 international medical graduates who should be fully qualified to practise medicine in Ontario but can’t get a residency position.
She says Ontarians who have gone abroad to get their medical education also can’t get residencies.
On Monday council approved a $10,000 incentive for Nurse Practitioner Sarah Shaw to set up practice at the Belleville Clinic.
There will be six Nurse Practitioners at the clinic when she starts in the new year.
Belleville’s current recruitment program offers a $150,000 for doctors who commit to practising medicine in Belleville for a minimum of five years after graduation while Nurse Practitioners receive $10,000 over two years.
