With a decline in new medical school grads gravitating toward family medicine, the efforts to attract new family doctors to Barrie is starting as early as high school these days.
While there is no shortage of specialists, over the years there has been less and less interest in the family medicine program, explained Corinne Maxwell, who serves as Barrie Area Physician Recruitment co-ordinator.
The reasons for that decline are varied, she said, but oftentimes it comes down to the administrative burden that comes along with running one's own family practice.
“On top of their medical practice, they’re dealing with about 19 hours a week in administrative work that never used to be on them,” Maxwell told BarrieToday.
One way to help promote a career in family medicine in the city, she said, has been to host a virtual event for high school students considering a career in medicine.
Although the event used to be held in person, when the pandemic hit it forced them to take it online, which Maxwell says has helped open up their efforts to even more interested students.
During the recent event, which is hosted by Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), the Barrie Area Physician Recruitment, the department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and the local public and Catholic school boards, participants have the opportunity to hear from medical residents and students on schooling, finances, standardized testing, and anything else they want to ask about.
“We know, just from statistics, that a lot of physicians will return to where they are from or where their spouse is from,” Maxwell said.
The idea of opening their own practice can be pretty daunting for new grads, she acknowledged.
“They’re coming out of med school with quite a bit of debt and then looking at starting your own practice is essentially starting your own business," Maxwell said. "You have a lot of overhead, whereas an emergency physician literally puts on a stethoscope and walks into the building and treats patients.
"The ones that are doing primary care are obviously doing it because that is what they really want to do, but there are a lot of things that would impact the decision to do it," she added.
While there is definitely a need for more family physicians in and around Barrie, Maxwell noted that, overall, compared to other municipalities across the province, the city is doing relatively well.
Locally, RVH’s family medicine teaching unit has managed to maintain a relatively decent retention rate, she said, with about 62 per cent of physicians staying in the area.
“Sometimes they go right into primary care and sometimes they go on to do a third year … to specialize in some hospital work," Maxwell added.
Another likely reason the city is above the provincial average, she said, is likely connected to the Barrie and Community Family Health Team and Barrie Family Health Organization.
“It’s the largest in Ontario and we have about 125 doctors that are a part of that," Maxwell said. "I think for new doctors, joining a health team gives them some peace of mind. They feel like they’ve got some support in something that is very new for them.”
RVH also has a pretty strong medical education program, she said, which allows the program to bring in a lot of residents from different universities to complete their clinical rotations at the Barrie hospital.
“They get some exposure to RVH and the Barrie area and we try to get them out to enjoy the area, because you have to be happy where you live,” Maxwell said.
The proposed expansion of RVH both in Barrie and with a new campus in Innisfil will hopefully serve as another draw for potential physicians in the future, she said.
“With bringing in more specialists, more equipment and more services to the area, it sets up a family doctor a lot better with having nearby places to refer their patients to," Maxwell said. "I think people get really excited when they see growth and the potential of a town or a city.”
