Healthcare is not a municipal responsibility, it is a provincial responsibility. If you cannot find a doctor, contact your Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and the Premier of Ontario Doug Ford and demand that more doctors are added to the healthcare system.
The City of Belleville reluctantly but substantially stepped into the physician recruitment business to compete with other jurisdictions to protect the health and wellbeing of this community and our residents. The responsibility for the health care crisis we are now dealing with lies solely with the Ontario government and every resident, business and organization in the City needs to hold the Province accountable for resolving this issue.
Health Care Recruitment Policy
Despite the recommendations in this report, management wants to make it clear that the City should NOT be in the recruitment business for any health care providers and that this policy is only being recommended as a way of competing for the scarce resources that are available in Ontario.
Council and the community must work diligently to lobby the Provincial government to make the much needed changes to the health care system to ensure ALL residents have proper access to immediate health care. Once the health care system has been properly fortified, this policy will not longer be required.
Belleville’s physician recruitment program was initiated in 2006 by Mayor Neil Ellis when he was first elected as Mayor of Belleville and has been spearheaded by City of Belleville Physician Recruiter Karen Poste. 15 doctors were recruited in its first year and a total of about 20 during that term.
Belleville’s recruitment program offers up to $150,000 over 6 years to medical students, medical residents and doctors who agree to practice in Belleville for at a 5 year return of service term or $10,000 for 2 year commitment in the case of Nurse Practitioners. Council will also consider offering a $75,000 ($15,000 installments) incentive for a 5 year return of service to existing physicians who relocated to Belleville from outside Ontario.
How it works
The program aims to attract four different types of health care practitioners with payments in return for a minimum number of years of service in the community:
- Family Physicians
- Specialists (including ER)
- Nurse Practitioners
- Registered Nurses
Family Medicine Physicians
The City may offer a financial incentive for family medicine students, residents or recently graduated family physicians in the amount of $150,000, payable in $25,000 annual installments in return for a five year commitment of full time service to the City of Belleville. Family physicians will be required to operate a full-time community based clinic within the City of Belleville. This incentive is not intended to apply to family physicians that will work only at the hospital but it will support physicians that will work at a Community Health Centre or other organization where patients are rostered to the physician. This $150,000 incentive will not be paid to an existing physician that will be leaving an established practice elsewhere in the Province of Ontario.
Family Medicine Physician/Emergency Medicine
The City may offer a financial incentive to a Family Physician Emergency Medicine Doctor in the amount of $75,000 in exchange for a 5 year commitment of full time service to Quinte Health Belleville General Hospital (QHBGH). This incentive is to be paid in annual $15,000
installments and is to be in place only while the shortage of CCFP/ER doctors at QHBGH is considered acute.
Specialist Physicians
The City may offer a financial incentive for a medical student, resident or recently graduated Specialist Physician, where such skills have been deemed in critical need in the community. The incentive will total $75,000 payable in $15,000 annual installments in return for a five year
commitment of full time service to the City of Belleville. Critical need specialties will be determined by the City in consultation with Quinte Health and other health related organizations (Ontario Health). Under exceptional circumstances, the City may consider paying an incentive
of up to $150,000 (ie Psychiatrists).
International Medical Graduates (IMG)
The City of Belleville will consider offering a financial incentive to a Family Physician
International Medical Graduate (IMG) provided they have relocated to Ontario, are eligible to
work in Ontario, and are enrolled in good standing with a Canadian Medical School and/or
actively studying for/taking accreditation exams. The incentive can be up to $150,000 paid in
$25,000 installments, in return for a five year commitment of service.
Established Family Physicians
The City will not provide a financial incentive to a physician that is leaving an existing practice and patients in another community in Ontario to move to Belleville. However, Council will consider providing a $75,000 incentive to any existing family physician that relocates to Belleville from outside of Ontario provided they are fully licensed to practice medicine in Ontario and provided they will open a clinic based practice here and will roster their own patients. The incentive is to paid in $15,000 installments in return for a five year commitment of service.
Nurse Practitioners
The Province of Ontario currently provides free tuition for most Nurse Practitioner programs provided they stay in the region in which they were educated. In order to attract as many graduates from this program as possible, the City may provide a $10,000 incentive for new graduates to choose a Belleville position. The incentive will pay $5,000 when the student starts a position in Belleville and another $5,000 after six months, in return for a two year commitment of service to Belleville.
Nurses
The City currently offers a $10,000 incentive for BScN students who are taking all four years of their degree at Loyalist College. The incentive is paid out at $2500 when they start year three, $2500 when they receive their nursing license and the final $5,000 when they pass their probation with a Belleville employer. This program is administered through an agreement with Loyalist College and could be opened up to other Colleges if a need is demonstrated.
New Family Physicians
Allows a physician that chooses to work either in their own clinic or in a Community Health Centre model of care be included as eligible for the program. $150,000 in return for a 5 year commitment of full time service.
Belleville pays up to recruiters $20,000 per physician recruited
Where a recruitment firm or individual brings forward a candidate for the family physician or specialist program and that candidate signs a return of service agreement with the City of Belleville, a recruitment fee may be paid. A maximum fee of $20,000 per recruit is possible. In instances where a recruitment firm is used, the $150,000 or $75,000 incentive is capped and all recruitment fees shall be paid out of the incentive for the physician (ie. $20,000 recruitment fee, $130,000 incentive to the physician or $20,000 recruitment fee, $55,000 to the physician).
Staff recommends no poaching of physicians within Ontario, but allowing poaching from other provinces
A key principle in the City’s recruitment program has been not to entice or incent a practicing physician from another community to leave their patients and move to Belleville. This is a strong moral principle and should be continued moving forward. However, management is aware of some established physicians from outside of Ontario that are looking to move to Ontario because of the policies/situations they are facing in their current province. There are also times, when an established family physician has decided to move from their current province/county for personal reasons which have nothing to do with an incentive.
These physicians are looking to Ontario as a place to settle and if Belleville had an incentive, it could tip the scales in our favour when it comes to deciding which Ontario community they will settle in. In this case, the incentive will cover moving and set up costs and not necessarily tuition or education reimbursement.
Funding
The program is funded by the dividends the City receives as a shareholder of Elexicon Energy.
Impact
As of August 2024, the program has attracted over 50 doctors and 5 nurse practitioners (10 physicians and 6 nurse practitioners in 2024) and over $6 million has been committed to attracting primary healthcare providers.
Agreements approved
Here are the latest announcements:
September 23, 2024 – Samer Kobrosly (NP)
September 23, 2024 – Jocelyn Timpson (NP)
52. August 12, 2024 – Dr. Ashwin Balabhadra (doctor, UK)
51. June 24, 2024 – Kimberly Mitchell (medical student)
50. May 27, 2024 – Dr. Viraj S. Sidhu (doctor) – 7th in 2024
49. May 14, 2024 – Dr. Mohammed Aamir Saiyed (residency)
48. May 7, 2024 – Dr Pratima Sharma (residency)
May 13, 2024 – Madison Chamberlain (NP)
46 & 47. April 10, 2024 – Dr. Revati Deshpande and Dr. Aswini Deshpande (residency, IMGs from India)
45. April 3, 2024 – Jillian Macklin (medical student)
44. March 26, 2024 – Mike (Youshan) Ding (medical student)
March 11, 2024 – Catherine Murphy (NP)
February 12, 2024 – Margaret Lynch (NP)
February 12, 2024 – Cecilia Annie Brown (NP)
December 11, 2023 – Sarah Shaw (NP)
September 25, 2023 – Erika Kiernick (NP)
Nurse Practitioner (NP) recruitment added in June 2023
In June 2023 Council approved a new Recruitment Policy which included the introduction of an incentive to support the attraction of Nurse Practitioners to the City. Nurse Practitioners (NP) play a vital role in providing primary health care to individuals in the community and their skills are highly coveted. A current shortage of NP’s is being experienced and this incentive has proven helpful with attracting these skills to Belleville.
September 26, 2018 – Dr. Samantha Graitson, Dr. Ryan Hartley, Dr. Jennifer Karmally, Dr. Justin Pang, Dr. Bethany Philpott (residency)
23. June 26, 2017 – Dr. Robin Morin (residency)
Nearby communities
Quinte West and Brighton
18. Docs by the Bay Physician Recruitment and Retention – August 28, 2024 – Dr. Ronak Brahmbhatt (physician in Dawson Creek, BC since 2022)
Madoc
October 26, 2023 – Dr. Corli Barnes (residency), Madoc
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