The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is looking to graduates of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to help fill a long list of medical specialist vacancies.
The hospital's website lists openings for 30 or more doctors in a wide range of specialties.
It’s hardly a new phenomenon. Dr. Stewart Kennedy, executive vice-president of medicine and academics, said at times there have been up to 40 vacancies.
"So this isn't anything of an abnormal picture," Kennedy said. "If anything, it's better than it has been over the past several years."
Kennedy added that the vacancies at the Health Sciences Centre are not critical and do not affect patient care in ways such as having to close operating rooms.
"But a lot of times in the specialties where we are underserviced, (other) docs have to be more available and more on-call to provide that service because of the shortage."
Kennedy added, however, that the hospital is dealing with some “significant challenges” in finding specialists in certain areas.
In an interview with tbnewswwatch.com, he indicated that vacancies, which the Health Sciences Centre is particularly anxious to fill, include those in the fields of child psychiatry. pathology, urology and dermatology, as well as hospitalists.
The hospital sees the Northern Ontario School of Medicine as an increasingly important resource for recruiting.
"We're getting family practice from that school ... now the specialties. Many of these specialties are just finishing graduating, like obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine. We expect a lot of the grads to come back now or continue to practise here in Thunder Bay."
Kennedy said a number of psychiatrists are interested in coming back to the city, as is an ear, nose and throat specialist.
"Now we're just seeing the program mature and develop," he said. "So one of our recruitment strategies is to focus on our NOSM grads who went away and did their residencies in different areas, or who did them here in Thunder Bay."
He said the hospital is actively trying to recruit them because it knows the grads are most likely to stay in the city.
Not all positions can be filled, however, by local medical school graduates.
"As far as the other areas of critical need, we did just recruit a vascular surgeon," Kennedy sid. "And we just made an offer to another vascular surgeon who looks to be hopefully coming early in the New Year."
He said the hospital is targeting certain areas where NOSM trainees aren't able to fill the need at this time.
Being an academic institution, Kennedy said the hospital also recently introduced a second recruiting initiative.
"We really want to select candidates who also are interested in teaching and research ... individuals who want to sort of further the academic mission. Sometimes it's a struggle to find that balance between clinical practice and academic and research."
