County Doc Talk, April 2024

ahambly
04.04.24 02:42 PM - Comment(s)

April 2024

Author: Adam Hambly

FLOWERS AREN’T THE ONLY THING COMING THIS MAY

Dr. Blackbyrne is delighted to be joining the wonderful team of Family Physicians in Prince Edward County. She and her family have been residing here for the last few years, and she is excited to be practicing in the community she calls home.

While Dr. Blackbyrne was born and raised in Toronto, the County has really rubbed off on her and her family. They now have a small hobby farm of 6 chickens, 5 sheep, 2 dogs and a horse. 

When not practicing medicine, Dr. Blackbyrne enjoys spending time with her family, getting her hands dirty in the garden, looking after her animals and travelling.

Recruitment news

County Docs has a lot of exciting news to report! Let’s start with some highlights:
1. Dr. Mary-Kathryn Blackbyrne will be joining our physician team in May 2024
2. We have confirmation that another physician will be joining our team in June 2024. We will be able to release her name soon. 
3. County Docs successfully launched its Health Care Connect Premium Pilot Program. Keep reading for those details. 

Our Health Care Connect Premium Pilot Program (that’s a mouthful!) aims to support physicians with onboarding large volumes of patients at once. Typically, this is done in small numbers over time, as it’s very time consuming, both clinically and administratively. With this premium, physicians will be able to roster 250 patients at once, using the premium to offset the additional clinical and admin costs. PEC Council provided funding for four premiums, and all four have already been spoken for. That’s 1000 patients that will come off the Health Care Connect list! Rostering will begin this month and is expected to continue into the Fall. We plan to go back to PEC Council for additional funding, so stay tuned for those updates.

In terms of recruitment events, County Docs attended all three of our targeted events this past quarter. The Family Medicine Resident Retreat for the University of Western Ontario, the job fair for Queens’ Family Medicine Residency program, and the Review Course in Family Medicine in Toronto all yielded some strong leads. 

CURRENT STATE

With the addition of Dr. Blackbyrne, we’ll have six physician opportunities in PEC. We had one community visit by a prospective physician this past quarter and are currently following a total of 37 leads in varying degrees of interest and readiness. We consider nine of these to be high potential and are following them very closely. 

Frequently Asked Question

Q: Why is there such a shortage of family doctors across the country?


A: This is a complicated question, and there are a couple answers. Simply put, there is an increased demand and decreased supply. Fewer medical students are choosing to specialize in Family Medicine due to the high administrative burden, the costs associated with starting and running a practice, and the remuneration compared to other specialties. 

Remember to follow County Docs Physician Recruitment and Retention on Facebook. 

Check us out at www.countydocs.ca

ahambly