Recruitment efforts 'paying off'
Greater Sudbury's physician recruitment efforts are definitely paying off, according to Health Sciences North's chief of staff.
Dr. Chris Bourdon told the hospital's board of directors June 12 that since a co-ordinated recruitment strategy was put together in 2001, 142 new physicians have arrived in the city.
Bourdon told the board said he also expects 25 new doctors to come to the city in 2012. Four physicians have already moved here since February, and negotiations are underway to woo the others to the city.
These potential new physicians include a new geriatrician, two medical oncologists, two anaesthetists, one obstetrician-gynaecologist, one neurologist and one psychiatrist. It also includes 12 new family doctors.
The 142 physicians recruited to the city over the past 10 years include 104 specialists, 36 family physicians and two Northern Ontario School of Medicine leaders. The city has done especially well since 2009, as 49 physicians have been recruited since that time.
However, 79 physicians have either relocated, passed away, retired or resigned their hospital privileges since 2001. That still leaves a net gain of 63 new physicians in the city.
Of the 40 physicians who have moved away from Greater Sudbury over the past 10 years, 22 of them were physicians who had come to the city since 2001.
Bourdon also put some context behind the impact of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) on physician recruitment.
Sixty-eight per cent of new doctors recruited to the city since 2001 have trained outside of the city, with the remaining physicians having trained in either one of NOSM's residency programs or Ottawa University's northeastern stream residency.
Since the first residents graduated from NOSM in 2009, 17 of them have joined Health Sciences North's medical staff.
Fourteen of these residents had done their post-graduate training at NOSM, and only three had done both their undergraduate and post-graduate training at NOSM. The remaining 32 physicians recruited to the city since 2009 were trained through other educational institutions.
Posted by Mark Gentili
