The Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development set aside $30,000 from a surplus the organization accumulated in 2013 to go toward recruiting physicians this year.
The motion to put the cash towards bringing doctors to the area was made at the institute's board meeting on Jan. 21.
The money will go towards the fees charged by a firm specializing in doctor recruitment.
Olds is now short four physicians as a result of two physicians on maternity leave while another doctor is soon expecting to give birth. A fourth physician in the community recently resigned and moved back to South Africa, leaving the community short on doctors with obstetrics experience.
Mel Giles, chair of the institute's physician retention and attraction committee, said Olds is the largest centre for births between Red Deer and Calgary, with more than 400 births per year occurring at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre. Half of the four physicians that Olds is recruiting should have obstetrical experience, he said, while the community is also in need of a gynecologist.
The $30,000 allocated from the institute will be able to fund two physicians coming to Olds if suitable candidates are found. A further $30,000 in a subsequent year would be needed to fund the two other doctors' arrivals.
Bernice Lynn, another member of the institute's physician retention and attraction committee, told the institute board at its meeting that Olds is competing against other communities in Central Alberta that are also short on physicians, noting that communities in the area are looking for a combined 57 doctors. Because Olds is looking for doctors with obstetric and general surgery experience, Lynn said the community wants to use an international recruiting firm to find the exact physician skills the community needs.
The institute has an agreement with Global Medical Recruiting to find international physicians to fit the needs Olds has. The company receives $7,500 once a job offer is made to an appropriate candidate and another $7,500 once the doctor starts in Olds.
ìIn the past, we've been reticent to (pay a recruiter),î Norm McInnis, the town's chief administrative officer, told institute board members at the meeting.
Al Kemmere, a member of the institute board, said he would like to see recruitment efforts directed at all communities throughout Mountain View County.
ìWe need to have a plan that we can all work together on,î he said.
Lynn said while that idea is good in theory, in practice, communities in the county are split in two health zones, with Olds and areas north being in the central region and Didsbury and areas south being part of the southern region, so it's difficult to work together as one county.
ìYou don't change without pushing,î Kemmere said. ìWe're seeing (active zones) and we shouldn't.î
In an interview, Giles said doctors in Olds not only are attending to patients in their regular practices, they are also expected to contribute time to the hospital's emergency room on a regular basis, so that makes it a bit more difficult to attract the type of physicians needed in the community.
ìThe important thing to remember is that our doctors not only work out of the clinic, but also every single one of them does their (emergency rotation) at the hospital as part of their contribution to our community. And so it's a bigger job for our doctors,î he said, adding that it would be preferable if two of the four positions were filled by Central Alberta medical graduates.
Giles said Global Medical Recruiting is being used because Alberta Health Services, which normally recruits doctors for communities, is not getting the number of applicants needed from either Alberta or other parts of Canada to fill the need for obstetrics experience.
ìIt's a good secure way of doing it. But the most important thing is that they do get the right people for the community, and we don't have to look and entertain people that don't have the credentials,î he said.
The last time the community recruited for physicians in 2010, using Global Medical Recruiting's services was contemplated but the firm wasn't used because new medical school graduates were found more easily, Giles said. At that time, Olds also wasn't in need of the specific skills it needs now.
He said the institute's contribution to the recruitment effort serves an important purpose.
ìTo me, it comes down to one thing. It's got to be an investment in the community. We're not paying a bonus to a doctor. The community's money is being used to secure the appropriate skill sets for us and it's an investment in our future,î he said.
