THUNDER BAY – Faced with competition from communities around the world, Thunder Bay has been in a longstanding battle to attract and retain health-care professionals.
Nearly two decades ago the city took steps to address those needs, including an annual Home for the Holidays networking event that brings employers and potential employees together in the same room to showcase the opportunities available in Northwestern Ontario.
Lexie Penko, the community health sciences recruiter for the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission, said there are plenty of challenges, adding events like Thursday’s help encourage professionals to stick around.
“There are a lot of students who go to medical school here. They also go to school in other cities. It’s important for us to have these events because we need our people to know that there are opportunities for them in health care and there’s a need for them,” Penko said.
“As the health-care needs grow in our city, so does the need for really qualified professionals and physicians.”
Most notably, family physicians are in demand, but by no means are they the only health-care occupation facing shortfalls in Thunder Bay and surrounding communities.
“There’s definitely a gap there. There are a lot of people in Northwestern Ontario who do not have a family doctor. But we’re also looking for positions like nurses, personal support workers. Our physicians need that support staff, in order to deliver their services. So it’s equally important we get those support positions filled as well,” Penko said.
Mayor Bill Mauro, who helped lead the physician recruitment charge when he was a Northwood councillor in the early 2000s, said at the time he was criticized for his efforts, told it was the responsibility of the province.
More than a decade-and-a-half later he’s still adamant that the gaps in health care need a push to help fill.
“This is a challenge right across the country, where you’re a rural community, a smaller population community, your ability to attract and retain health-care professionals in your city,” Mauro said.
“Anything municipalities can do, you do have a role to play, so this event here today ... has the opportunity, even if you just grab a couple of people, two, three or four people, it makes a difference.”
According to a Health Quality Ontario report, in 2015 only 23.8 per cent of adults in the Northwest reported being able to see their physician on the same or next day as when they were sick, compared to 43.6 per cent in all of Ontario.
As of 2016, 61 per cent of graduates from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine were practicing in Northern Ontario, a number that jumps to 94 per cent if they also completed their undergraduate degree in the region.
