New clinic concept could work

Published Wednesday June 2nd, 2010
C6

Fredericton could be facing a crisis in four years time.

The retirement of eight family doctors in the capital city by 2014 will leave 26,700 residents without a physician.

That's enough to set off numerous health-related alarm bells.

At Monday night's meeting of city council, Fredericton Chamber of Commerce president Lee Winchester asked councillors to pass a resolution of support for a proposed southside collaborative-care clinic. It was unanimously accepted.

The chamber wants to get the collaborative clinic on the provincial government agenda by 2011 and will lobby MLAs and political candidates in this fall's election.

The hope is to get businesses behind the cause and create a case for the health-care centre because, without adequate help in this area, the city's economic growth will also falter, Winchester said.

There can be no doubt that people, and even the businesses they represent, won't want to settle in the city if it does not have an adequate number of doctors and related facilities.

This city is on a roll in a number of other areas - such as information technology and the environment - and it would be unfortunate, indeed, if a wheel was to suddenly come off the apple cart.

The proposed southside collaborative-care clinic would be similar to the Gibson Health Clinic in Marysville in that it would allow family doctors to practise in a group setting, alongside health-care professionals, such as physiotherapists, nurse practitioners, dieticians and others.

Many doctors coming into the system don't want the bother of setting up their own practice.

The cost of doing so can be expensive and can be a heavy weight for any new physician to shoulder upon establishing himself or herself in a location. Such a clinic would make moving to this area a more attractive option.

Many also want to function in an environment where they can have more regular hours. They want to have a balance between their work lives and personal lives.

Again, a collaborative-care clinic would certainly meet many of these needs by providing a more structured environment.

It has the potential to be a powerful tool in helping to attract physicians to locations such as Fredericton.

Increasingly, recent medical school graduates aren't prepared to work the laborious schedules that many old-school physicians have embraced. With more female doctors in the mix, the health-care system also has to adjust to young physicians who need to take a break to start their own families.

Winchester said the rule of thumb is that for every family doctor who retires, it will take three recent medical graduates to fill the void. That means even if a new clinic could attract eight physicians, that's not going to be enough doctors to meet the status quo.

There are no young doctors in the queue willing to move here right now, he said.

Winchester said setting up a collaborative-practice clinic comes with a higher price tag initially, but studies in provinces such as Manitoba - which has embraced the model - show better patient outcomes in terms of preventing illness, rather than treating symptoms, which can ease the burden on the public hospital system.

We agree with deputy mayor Dan Keenan that, as a city, we need to get behind the concept and push it forward.

It may not solve all problems but it's a good step in the right direction.

Our local provincial politicians need to know that the city considers this one of its top priorities.