Quinte West’s Health Care Connect program is seeing a slight alteration, to incentivise doctors to take on patients left without a doctor when their current one retires.
During Wednesday’s council meeting, council evaluated a proposal to expand the criteria for an incentive for doctors to take on patients from the Health Care Connect wait list, to also include patients being taken over from a retiring doctor.
Currently, Health Care Connect serves as a program connecting patients without a primary care doctor with a doctor. Doctors who take on 250 patients through the program would be eligible for a one time $25,000 incentive payment.
The move, recommended by municipal staff and the Physician Recruitment Committee, is intended to smooth the transition between doctors for those affected, while encouraging doctors to take on those patients.
