There is a crisis in Moose Jaw.
For the past decade family physicians have not been plentiful anywhere in Canada but the story on Thursday pointing out that Moose Jaw is 10 doctors short of its usual number is a scary situation for the city.
As was noted in the story being down 10 is unusually high for the city. But if the Five Hills Health Region has a hard time recruiting more then we could be on a slippery slope and soon 10 might look like a good number.
This is why doctor recruitment for this area has to be more vigorous than ever. A doctor shortage is not a problem exclusive to Moose Jaw. In fact, it’s a major issue everywhere. That’s why it will be harder than ever to bring doctors here as we have to compete against larger centres.
As the number of doctors dwindles due to retirement and the fact many new doctors try to specialize instead of going into family practice Five Hills shouldn’t be alone in its recruitment efforts.
That’s why it was good to hear Mayor Glenn Hagel will be assisting the health region in this monumental task. It could have been easy for the mayor to step back and say it’s a health region issue and he does not want to interfere, but instead he has seen the importance of a united effort.
But besides just trying to bring existing doctors here, maybe the city, the health region and the province should work on incentives to get those youth who are leaving Moose Jaw to start university to aim for medical school in exchange for incentives. While that won’t bring any new doctors immediately, a few years from now, it could mean an increase of doctors who could stay for the long haul.
