City offering scholarship opportunities for future physicians

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Future family doctors could receive a scholarship from the City of Woodstock to help fund their medical training.

The city is offering five $1,000 bursaries for people currently enrolled in a medical school or family medicine residency program. The deadline to apply is Feb. 28.

To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must be a resident of Woodstock or Oxford County and be registered in a medical school or family medicine residency program recognized by the Medical Council of Canada. Eligible applicants can apply online with their current Curriculum Vitae (CV), proof of acceptance or current enrollment in a recognized program, and a written submission outlining their future career intention.

Kristy Hons is the physician recruiter and explained the challenge isn’t recruiting to Woodstock, it’s recruiting to family medicine.

“I see a lot of people interested in working at the hospital full-time or coming on as a locum so they might come in for short periods to cover for a family physician instead of wanting to have their own family practice.”

She said most new grads just aren’t interested in opening a small business which is what is required to operate a doctor’s office.

“They are basically self-employed, small-business owners. Most of them, I find, love seeing patients during the day but they have a lot of administrative tasks to do on evenings and weekends and looking at specialist consults for all the patients in their practice.”

She added on top of those duties they have to worry about hiring staff and having the necessary office equipment on site. The cost of living is also a factor according to Hons.

“If a doctor works at the hospital, those things are managed for them. The cost of everything has been going up and a lot of small businesses can raise their fees or prices, but doctors are limited in what they can bill the province. Their costs are going up but they can’t increase their revenue.”

Hons is hopeful the scholarship offer will catch on to the students she is aware of in the city and the ones she isn’t.

“I am aware of a few I have met over the years, however, I do think there are probably more out there that I am not aware of. I certainly hope it will help the student with a bit of the cost then it terms and help us here in the City of Woodstock. Some students may be going to university for four to six years before they start medical school. I am hoping the scholarship keeps us on their radar.”

Hons is hopeful students will come to the city for a site visit at the hospital, meet some local family doctors and perhaps do an elective or part of their training here and ultimately see what a great place Woodstock is to practice and set up shop here.

Like many communities, Woodstock does not have enough family physicians to meet current needs. City staff have been actively working to recruit more doctors to the community since it was identified as a community priority in the 2012 Strategic Plan. The scholarship is one of the new initiatives introduced as part of the 2024 budget.

Based on calculations from March 2020 data from the Health Analytics Branch and Health Force Ontario, it is estimated that at least six new family physicians are needed to meet local demand in the city alone. Factoring in the need across Oxford County, data suggests the number of new doctors required to meet the need is closer to 12.

Hons said she is part of the Southern Ontario Physician Recruitment Alliance which includes areas like Stratford, Hamilton, Niagara and St. Thomas.

“They are very focused on doing international recruiting which can be quite costly to do. If we all work together it cuts down those costs and makes it more feasible to attend some international events to expand our search.”

The Echo asked Hons if it was difficult to work with other municipalities all in desperate need of physicians and obviously in competition with each other.

“So far it hasn’t been. It has been identifying a broad pool of leads and not everyone is going to have the opportunity for that physician at the same time. Everyone is on their own to pursue the leads and have the right opportunity for that physician at the same time.”

Visit www.woodstockdoctors.ca to learn more about the scholarship program and apply online.