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Town's last six doctors quitting
Toronto Star ^ | Feb. 18, 2005 | ROB FERGUSON

Posted on 02/18/2005 9:09:37 AM PST by FormerACLUmember

Ontario's doctor shortage is taking a turn for the worse as the last six physicians in the town of Geraldton are quitting en masse, presenting another headache for Health Minister George Smitherman.

The move will leave the local hospital and thousands of patients with no physicians when the departures take effect in May — unless months of failed efforts to recruit replacement physicians suddenly pay off.

Losing its doctors will likely move Geraldton to the top of the list of about 140 cities and towns in the province officially designated by the government as being short of doctors. About 100 of those are in southern Ontario.

The Ontario Medical Association estimates one million Ontarians don't have family physicians and says that number is likely to grow with hundreds of doctors — many of them over 65 — within a few years of retiring.

The Geraldton crisis comes at an awkward time for Smitherman, whose ministry is embroiled in contract talks with doctors through the OMA, which has warned that the doctor shortage will grow worse without more incentives.

"We're sick at what this could mean for our patients," Dr. Saralaine Johnstone said in a phone interview yesterday from Geraldton, a community of 3,000 which is one of four towns amalgamated into the municipality of Greenstone, a three-hour drive north of Thunder Bay.

But long workdays, adding up to between 80 and 100 hours a week for the doctors staffing the Geraldton District Hospital, a community clinic and a satellite office in a nearby small town, have taken their toll, she added.

"There's a minimum number of physicians you need to be able to practise safely and the number dropped below that threshold. Eventually it does become unsafe for the physicians and the community."

Most of the doctors had signed on for three-year contracts in Geraldton and their time is up, Johnstone added, noting several want to spend more time with their families or to return to southern Ontario.

"We're not alone in this. This is something that many communities are facing," said Greenstone Mayor Michael Power, who was in Toronto for a meeting. "But when you have every doctor leaving (at the same time), that hits you really hard."

Geraldton residents learned of the pending departures in a notice published by the doctors in a local newspaper this week.

"Everyone's in a state of shock," Pat Larsen, who works at a car rental agency and has lived in Geraldton for 32 years, told the Star. "It's really, really devastating. There's so many seniors in our area and they need a lot of care."

Smitherman said his officials are trying to help Geraldton find replacement doctors. "The people of Geraldton will not be left abandoned," he vowed.

A short-term solution could involve luring doctors to Geraldton for temporary stints, known as locums. "This hospital is part of a five-hospital network, which means that there is other strength in the region that we can depend upon," Smitherman said.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton called that approach inadequate because the nearest communities with doctors — Hearst and Nipigon — are a two-hour drive away. He said the government's lack of a plan to attract more physicians is making Geraldton a "doctor ghost town."

"Physicians in a small northern community like Geraldton are typically quite overworked because they're almost always on call weekends and after hours ... They really take on huge responsibilities."

OMA president Dr. John Rapin said he talked to some of the Geraldton doctors yesterday and noted their contract makes them among the best paid in the province. They are part of a program designed to lure doctors to remote northern areas.

But it's not a matter of money — it's the hours they must put in unless more doctors can be recruited to share the load, added Rapin, an emergency room physician in Kingston. "Nobody's prepared to work to the death."

Conservative health critic John Baird (Nepean-Carleton) warned that Geraldton won't be the last community to lose its doctors.

"Geraldton is a microcosm of what Ontario will be like because of the failure of the McGuinty government to have a plan to retain and attract doctors in Ontario."

Smitherman said the government is taking steps to ease the doctor shortage, including offering a new contract that would make Ontario physicians the highest-paid in Canada.

The deal would boost their pay by about $1 billion over four years, with some physicians who work outside traditional office hours in remote areas getting hikes of up to 35 per cent.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Canada; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: doctors; healthcare; hillarycare; socialism; socializedmedicine
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To: Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
Sounds like some of the indentured servants are revolting and seeking better situations. People who demand "free health care for all" never seem to understand that their demand implies a claim on other people's services. That sort of claim is the basis of slavery.

The same thing would happen in a heartbeat in the USA if the democrats continue their destruction of our healthcare system.

61 posted on 02/18/2005 12:53:43 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: TChris

LOL


62 posted on 02/18/2005 12:54:56 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: fish hawk

NY Is a freekin' economic basket case.


63 posted on 02/18/2005 12:55:42 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: FormerACLUmember
Canuckistan docs get paid about 50% of US doctors.

And thats AFTER paying malpractice insurance!

64 posted on 02/18/2005 12:57:35 PM PST by D Rider
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To: LauraleeBraswell

No, they need to enlist-enjoin-conscript the leaving doctors until a sufficient supply of replacements arrive.

Chain them to the clinics if need be. They can be let go as soon as a replacement arrives.

/sarcasm


65 posted on 02/18/2005 12:59:36 PM PST by Hostage
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To: OKIEDOC
No physician in his right mind is going to practice in the frozen 50 below zero north woods of Ontario, at least not when he/she is going to be so shabbily treated by the provincial and federal authorities.

Ontario docs have enormous grievences which this news report does not address. The news reporting in Canada is extremely shabby in general, generally consisting of reporters kissing the enormous buttocks of government bureaucrats.

Memo to Kerry weasel/whiners: Be my guest.

66 posted on 02/18/2005 1:01:34 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: AdrianR
Several years ago I looked at working as a physician in Canada for a foreign friend of mine.

He is on the staff of a very fine hospital in his country.

However, he was unable to immigrate to Canada because he would not be allowed into a residency.

I was told that their are lots of doctors driving taxi's in Eastern Canadian cities.

Basically the people of Canada has over the years morphed into all sorts of stupidness. The great people in Western Canada have little say in their government.
67 posted on 02/18/2005 5:53:27 PM PST by OKIEDOC (LL THE)
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To: not_apathetic_anymore
"I was a mean conservative and said that I wished people who made those threats would follow through. Empty threats/ promises mean nothing and make me less likely to listen to anything they said."

Good for you! It's time these people are stood up to.

I bet you haven't heard a peep from them since?

68 posted on 02/20/2005 4:41:38 AM PST by auggy (http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-DownhomeKY /// Check out My USA Photo album & Fat Files)
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