BY MICHAEL JAMES
Sudbury?s medical community and the mayor?s office are banking on an attractive incentive program and good old-fashioned northern hospitality to attract more physicians and health care professionals to our community.
Towards that end, the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce has updated its incentive package to include more than 40 products and services from chamber supporters, including entertainment and recreation perks, assistance with business start-up costs, and home, moving and office incentives.
City Councillor Doug Craig, co-chair of the Mayor and Council?s Roundtable on Recruitment and Retention of Physicians and Allied Health Care Professionals, said the recruitment and retention of physicians and health care professionals is extremely competitive.
?Sault Ste. Marie has allocated huge sums of money from their casino toward the recruitment and retention of physicians,? he said.
Last year 13 new doctors moved into the community. One of the recruitment highlights was the Docs on Ice hockey tournament last month which brought 640 physicians to Sudbury for several days.
City Councillor Louise Portelance applauded the recruitment plan but wondered if it goes far enough.
?Other places offer a lot more,? Portelance said. ?Things like cars and houses.?
In outlining the roundtable?s action plan for 2003/2004, Jackie Thoms, co-chair and manager of the Northeastern Ontario Medical Education Corporation, said the city has limited financial resources with which to operate in this regard.
The community would be better served focusing its energies on adopting other, more innovative and entrepreneurial strategies, she said.
Some of these strategies include the continuation of annual recruitment fairs; the ongoing promotion of Sudbury as a great place for physicians to live, work, and raise their families; and taking advantage of travel and accommodation grants provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health. The grants can be used to bring doctors and their families to come to Sudbury to check out what our community has to offer in the way of real estate, cultural attractions, educational facilities and lifestyle.
?If we don?t wine, dine and entertain the wives and families as well as the physicians, they won?t come,? she said.
There was a general consensus among members of the roundtable that this was indeed the way to go.
Thoms also stressed the importance of follow-up to the so-called Welcoming Weekends.
Other initiatives include the development of turnkey clinics that require minimal physician management and overhead costs, a family medicine recruitment weekend Aug 21 to 24, ongoing physician recognition events, the maintenance of ongoing contact with Northern Ontario Family Medicine (NOFM) residents throughout their training period, and the establishment of a new City of Greater Sudbury ?Welcome? website portal.
Perhaps one of the most important initiatives identified was keeping in touch with Sudbury-born medical students.
?The initiatives with our youth are what?s going to make the difference in the long run,? Thoms said.
