Municipalities across the Rainy River District are coming together to help fund doctor recruitment.
Delegates attending the Rainy River District Association’s annual meeting on the weekend gave unanimous support to using 20 per cent of membership fees toward the cause.
Until now, only Fort Frances and Emo were contributing annual funding to a recruitment and retention committee.
Fort Frances Councillor Rick Wiedenhoeft says it takes a lot of time and energy to bring new doctors to the area.
“You have to maintain contact with these people, and you have to get them on board right from the very beginning. When you include retention along with recruitment, this is a very expensive process,” says Wiedenhoeft.
Local recruitment efforts are now costing nearly $200-thousand.
Wiedenhoeft says earmarking a share of RRDMA money won’t impact on municipal budgets.
The catchphrase over the last ten months has been ‘We’re All in This Together.’ What could be more appropriate than applying that catchphrase to this endeavour, ‘We’re All in This Together,” says Wiedenhoeft.
RRDMA president and Rainy River Mayor Deb Ewald supports the initiative.
Her community supported the construction of a home for locums to stay in when staffing the Rainy River Health Centre’s emergency room.
“I think we need all need to look at Fort Frances (being) the main hospital for this district, and I think they need help. They are paying quite a cost,” says Ewald.
Atikokan has its own recruitment committee. Delegates discussed earmarking Atikokan’s share of membership fees to that committee.
In agreeing to the funding support, the Association is also looking to have representation on the recruitment and retention committee.
Current municipal reps from Fort Frances and Emo did not see that being a problem.
