Life lines: Health-care professionals discuss challenges in communities on Lake Huron's north shore

Dr. Nick Jeeves takes a rare moment to sit and reflect in a corridor at the Blind River Hospital, a small facility off Highway 17 along the scenic and sparsely populated north shore of Lake Huron.

It's part of the North Shore Health Network (NSHN)

His light grey scrubs and salt and pepper hair are coupled with a quiet demeanour as nearby nurses stay intent on their duties and a patient rolls through the hallway in a motorized wheelchair.

Only eight of the 18 beds at the hospital hold patients today and the emergency room is quiet, recovering from a busy period.

The hospital provides a critical safety net here as the next closest emergency room is a 45 minute drive away on Highway 17 in Thessalon, and the closest major health hubs are in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, an hour-and-a-half away in either direction.  Both of those hospitals are struggling with wait times and overcapacity.

The rural hospital has its own challenges — one is that the old-fashioned idea of the country doctor is fading.

Jeeves is chief of staff in Blind River and one of four doctors who will retire in the next couple of years. That's half of the physician staff of eight at the hospital.

He said one of the problems is the expectations for rural generalists have changed and the profession is in flux.

"It's changing even faster as time goes by," he said. "The rate at which new information comes up and new ways of treating things, new ways of diagnosing, imaging, etcetera. All those things are changing and in very quick order, and expectations of practitioners change as well."

He said he has loved being a rural physician, but it's increasingly difficult to convince young people to accept the demands of the job and to live in the area.

After a quick chat, his rest is over and it's time to get back to work.

NSHN CEO Tim Vine said staffing and human resources are always in his thoughts, with a heavy reliance on a visiting, temporary doctors to cover shifts 60 per cent of the time.

According to the Ministry of Health, there is an Emergency Department Locum Program (EDLP)  which provides doctors on short-term stints as backup coverage and a last resort for hospitals facing challenges to temporarily cover ED shifts.

The focus of the EDLP is to support EDs in small and rural hospitals that are typically covered by a single physician.