Province says 18 doctors signed on to work on P.E.I. in 2020

A total of 18 physicians from various medical specialties have signed on to practise on the Island in 2020, according to an update fromHealth PEI.

Yet doctors are still in high demand across the province; as of Aug. 24, there were 13,364 people on P.E.I.'s patient registry, the list of Islanderswithout family physicians.

Health PEIsays the recent hires include12 specialists and six family medicine doctors.

A news release issued Tuesday says 13 of the 18have already started working on P.E.I. Five specialists will begin work later this year and another will come on boardin 2021.

In an interview with CBC News, Minister of Health and Wellness James Aylward said he was grateful to recruiters for their efforts in filling "high-demand" health positions.

"I'm always concerned when we have a vacancy, but you know, I think this announcement speaks volumes for the great workthat's being done by the team," he said.

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, P.E.I. has been seen as a leader when it comes to controlling the health emergency across Canada, Aylward said. He added physicians are now reaching out with questions about comingto the Island.

Asked how many previous newhires have stayed on as doctors in the province in the past few years, Aylward said he didn't have the answer to that question butpromised to look uprecruitment and retention rates.

Doctor shortage previously identified

In the spring of 2018, Aylward, who was then Opposition leader for the Progressive Conservatives,took the Liberal government to task over the shortage of doctors in western P.E.I.

The province's physician recruitment co-ordinatorlater said P.E.I. had hired 20 physicians in 2018 and another six in 2019.

A 2019 post on the government's website notes that financial incentives have been used to attract and retain physicians from out of province or residents in P.E.I.'s training program.

In theJune 2019 throne speech, the Dennis King government committed to identifying the needs and providing timely access to appropriate health-care services through recruiting and retaining doctors and other relevant professionals.

"We will make additional and sustained investments to primary care and specialized care to ensure the needs of Islanders are metthat every Islander has access to a doctor and that wait times in areas such as hip and knee replacements are lessened," the speech said.

Still hiring

The P.E.I. government's website lists several current job postings for physicians.

It shows the province is looking to hire more physicians in emergency medicine at Western Hospital in Alberton and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown;family medicine in theQueens and Prince primary care networks;specialists in areas including general surgery, pathology andoncology; and several locum positions in fields such asradiology, pediatrics, anesthesiologyand psychiatry.

Aylward said recruiters are"working hard" to fill those vacant positions.

Some of the new hires will be replacing physicians who are retiring, he said.

He said the addition of some new specialists, such as a neo-natal specialist,will mean some Islanders will no longer need to travel out of province for certain procedures and types of care.

"We're better able to support these premature babies and, even more so, the entire family," he said.

Two family medicine sponsored residents will also be placed in the provincial health system in the coming months.

The government said in the release that so far this year, 76 graduate registered nurses, four graduate nurse practitioners, three experienced registered nursesand two experienced nurse practitioners have been hired.

Aylward could not immediately provide a breakdown of the new hires in terms offull time versuspart time, or how many are permanent, temporary or casual.

There were 78 nursing students engaged by Health PEI and private long-term care facilities this spring and summer, which thegovernment said in the release is more than double the usual number.

Another 26 university students were hired this summer to work in health-care settings across the Island, the release said.

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