Casselman, Ont. struggling to attract doctors because it can't offer same bonuses as neighbouring communities

The municipality of Casselman, Ont. is struggling to replace three doctors who recently left a local clinic.

The Casselman Medical Clinic had six physicians, but in the last five months, one retired, one returned to his home country, and another moved to a nearby town for a better opportunity.

That's left more than 2,000 patients in the area east of Ottawa without a family doctor, and the clinic says it is at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting more.

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Clinic owner Jennifer Arenas says recruiting new doctors has been a challenge.

"We've had no luck being able to recruit physicians," she said. "We are fighting against clinics in locations that are able to offer incentive grants."

She's referring to the rurality index for Ontario (RIO), a certain score based on population and how long it takes to travel to basic and advanced referral centres. The province says it is meant to ensure funding is specifically targeted to northern and very rural communities. Grants can be used to give doctors bonuses of $80,000 or more to work in specific remote areas of the province.

Arenas says Casselman just barely misses the mark to qualify.

"You have to have a score of 40 and above. The communities around us are all 40 and above."

Casselman has a score of 39.

"Right now, with the RIO score being the way it is, we can't unlock certain grants that we can offer doctors," says Mayor Geneviève Lajoie.

A petition is available in the clinic's waiting room, urging the government to increase Casselman's RIO score by a single point. An online petition has also been created.

The Ministry of Health says any changes to how rurality scores are calculated would require negotiation with the Ontario Medical Association.

"Rurality Index for Ontario scores are developed and maintained by the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and updating them would be subject to negotiations between the Ministry of Health and the OMA," a ministry spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

Arenas said that one extra point to the rurality score would make a difference for patients and the doctors who are left to fill in the gaps.

"The strain is mainly associated with the fact that a lot of the patients will become orphaned, now in a situation where they can't get the help they need, medically," said Dr. Jude Sunjoh.