Pandemic is hurting doctor recruitment in northern Ontario, says medical school dean

The dean of the Northern Ontario Medical School says the pandemic is further complicating doctor recruitment and retention in Sudbury and northern Ontario.

Dr. Sarita Verma says there is still a shortage of about 100 family doctors and 130specialists, primarily in Sudbury and Thunder Bay andthe system is especially fragile right now as she saysthe pandemic has made it harder to bring people from away to fill in.

"Many of our physician locums that fill in are from [COVID-19] hotspots in southern Ontario," Verma said.

Locums,agency nurses or other supplemental staff, face restrictions on travel and increased COVID-19 risks as they rotate throughdifferenthealth care sites.

In a blog post yesterday, Verma wrote "there is a serious physician workforce crisis looming in Ontario"and the pandemic has "exacerbated the situation significantly."

In the blog post, she saidthe reasons for the physician shortage include:

• Graduating physicians looking to go into independent practice are facing disruptions and delays.
• Some doctors have had to change the scope of their work, or have chosen to retire early, due to "workload challenges" brought on by COVID-19.
• Some doctors choosing to shrink the size of their practice as the complex needs of their patientsincrease due to the pandemic.
• Ongoing challenges recruiting and retaining doctors for rural, northern, Indigenous and Francophone communities.
• New graduates leaving the province because of a lack of residency options here in Ontario.

Verma said the pandemic"has been superimposed on an already fragile system."

She pointed to specific areas of care such as mental health, public health, long-term care, and seniors' care as beingparticularly affected.

She says NOSMis focusing on developing residency programs like the Rural Generalist Pathway, which developsphysicians who providecare ranging from promoting prevention to performing specialist tasks.

Verma does say, however, that northern Ontario may have an advantage as a destination for doctors, because it's seen as safer than other parts of Ontario.