St. Stephen considers direct financial incentive to lure doctors
CBC
St. Stephen is the latest municipality in New Brunswick to take doctor recruitment into its own hands.
Town council is expected to vote March 26 on an incentive package that includes $125,000 for new family physicians and international medical graduates, $75,000 for specialists, emergency doctors and established family doctors who relocate from out of province, and $10,000 for nurse practitioners.
The larger amounts would be paid in $25,000 instalments in return for a five-year commitment of full-time service.
The proposed incentives come after several other municipalities have gone the route of funding scholarships for medical residents or subsidizing office costs.
"We have to do something," St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern said.
Health care may not be a municipal responsibility, he said, but citizens are raising concerns about it daily.
"We've been struggling so long. … Now, we're at a critical stage."
The town is short about four doctors, MacEachern said.
According to the New Brunswick College of Physicians and Surgeons, St. Stephen has seven licensed family doctors: Donald Acheson, Jolanta Lalik, Norman Lister, Lesley Pinder, John Procee, Raluca Procee and Javed Raza.
However, Lister's phone number is disconnected and a staff member at another local doctor's office said he has stopped practising.
Another doctor, Suria Kumar Bugwandin, died suddenly last month at the age of 62, according to his obituary.
"The situation here is quite desperate," said an emailed reply from doctors Raluca and John Procee.
"We estimate that approximately 8,000 patients or more are currently without a family doctor."
Finding replacements for doctors who have been practising in the community for years is very challenging, MacEachern said.
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