The North Bay Regional Health Centre is being forced to close a clinic that manages chronic diseases because of a shortage of doctors. The Chronic Disease Management Clinic was an interim service launched three years ago to help patients without family doctors. “We understand this is going to be very distressing for patients. It was a distressing decision for us to make,” said Dr. Scott Kerrigan, the hospital’s chief of staff. “It will be distressing for our physicians, as well.” The clinic launched in 2023 as a stopgap measure to treat complex-needs patients while connecting them to long-term care solutions and easing pressure on a strained ER team. Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, said recruiting new doctors is even harder when a “profound” shortage already exists. “The workload is so severe because there are so many people in the region without primary care that it’s a very hard life for the physicians,” Mehra said. “They need nurse practitioners, social workers, physiotherapists, and the whole team, which alleviates the workload for physicians. Doctors can do doctoring. Nurse practitioners can help with the full scope that they are able to cover. The other health professionals can help, and it really makes it more tenable for the physicians to be able to locate there.” The hospital said that although the area is not actually falling behind in primary care capacity, it also is not catching up for patients who really do need access to consistent primary care. “In North Bay, an area the exact number of physicians I would say that we would need in primary care is probably eight to 10,” Kerrigan said. Mehra said that Ontario Health is “responsible for planning the workforce for Ontario”. “The first job of a public health system is to plan for the demand and supply of public health care that is the health, human resources, and the funding for public health care,” she said. ‘Treat it like a crisis’ Mehra is urging the Ford government to mobilize versatile health care teams to help with physician shortages, not just in North Bay but across the province. “They have to treat it like a crisis and put the resources in to bring in at least temporary physicians and so on to cover so that people can get the care they need,” she said. The hospital said successful recruiting efforts have led to eight new primary care doctors and a dozen specialists in the last fiscal year. However, retirements and increases in demand have prevented the region from closing its coverage gap. “We work with our partners. We continue to work on recruitment,” Kerrigan said. Increase in enrollment In the meantime, hospital staff are encouraging people to sign up for Ontario’s Health Care Connect, which helps people find doctors who are accepting new patients, either a family doctor, a nurse practitioner or a primary care team. Meanwhile, NOSM University plans to increase its medical school capacity and family medicine (primary care) residency training. Its MD program intake has grown from 64 to 88 students, with a future goal of 108 students per year. Total learners supported by the expansion are projected to rise significantly. Post-graduate medical and family medicine training positions are scaling up from roughly 60 to 123 residents per year. Backed by provincial and federal funding, NOSM is establishing primary care teaching clinics in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and North Bay. These team-based clinics will pair hands-on learner training with primary care access for thousands of patients. The school has added new residency streams, including Family Medicine Enhanced Skills in Palliative Care, Addiction Medicine, and Sport and Exercise Medicine, allowing family doctors to broaden their scope of practice locally.
