South Frontenac searching for answers amid critical doctor shortage

A patient is assessed at the Verona Medical Clinic, in South Frontenac, Ont. (Kimberley Johnson/CTV News Ottawa)

There’s a critical shortage of family doctors across Ontario, and smaller communities are having to fight to keep them in the fold.

In South Frontenac, there’s concern they won’t be able to keep up, as other communities offer large financial incentives to draw in family physicians.

South Frontenac is in desperate need of family doctors, says Dr. Sabra Gibbons, who runs the Verona Medical Clinic. 

"I’ve been looking for another full-time physician here in Verona since 2016, to no avail," Dr. Gibbons explains. 

Gibbons is only one of four family doctors in the rural community north of Kingston, which holds a population of more than 20,000 people. 

Now, she and others are calling for the township to provide extra money to potential future doctors to entice them here.

"Because we’re going to lose," she explains. 

To address the shortage of family physicians, communities, like neighbouring Kingston, are offering top up programs up to $100,000 over five years to build a practice. 

"We’re in this difficult situation where a lot of communities around us are putting up that kind of money and we’re not and so it has the potential to put us at a disadvantage," Gibbons explains. "If someone is kind of interested in the general Kingston area, but they get a lot more money if they were to set up their general practice in Kingston, as opposed to somewhere like Verona."

Smaller rural communities can get help from the Ontario government, but South Frontenac doesn’t qualify because of its larger population size, explains Mayor Ron Vandewal. 

"Doctors and nurses and all of those programs should be provided by the province. (It) shouldn’t be that property taxation has to bid for doctors."

The mayor says he’s concerned with financial incentives because there’s only so much money smaller townships have. 

"When you’re a rural municipality like us at our level, the only place we get money is off the taxpayer,” Vandewal explains. "We don’t provide social services because then you know there’s going to be more requests."

He says there’s the potential for neighbouring counties to work together to draw doctors to the region. 

That would be progress for Dr. Gibbons, who says doctors are set to retire soon. 

"I don’t think I can keep working like this, it’s not sustainable," she explains. "And that’s why I continue to look for a practice partner so it can be a bit more manageable."