The need for doctors in the Rainy River District has reached the ‘critical’ status.
That according to municipal representatives who sit on the area’s physician recruitment committee,
A total of physicians are needed, four in Fort Frances, two in Rainy River and two in Emo.
One of the greatest concerns is with the Rainy River Health Centre in Rainy River.
Alberton township Reeve, Mike Ford, one of three municipal reps on the physician recruitment committee, says there are two doctors there with a high caseload.
“They are getting burned out. We need to get them some help. We’re going to need to lobby upper levels of government to get them the out because today is going to come, and you know yourself, when you’re feeling burned out, you just feel like packing up and leave,” says Ford.
Emo is another area where recruiting more doctors is vital.
Town councillor Lincoln Dunn says a doctor who arrived two years ago will leave his community in March.
“This crisis is not impending. This crisis is here. It’s critical, and it’s important that we as leaders have a stake going forward to other levels of government, in particular to the ministry and to our MPP, to let them know that we’re not approaching crisis. The crisis is here now,” warns Dunn.
Ford adds there is no current interest from any of the students from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to come to this area.
Fort Frances councillor Wendy Brunetta adds it’s getting tough to recruit to small communities.
“Everyone decides where they want to go for different reasons. A lot of doctors don’t want to go to small rural communities because they want to have access or immediate access to specialists which we don’t have here,” says Brunetta.
