The Huron Expositor, 1998-09-09, Page 3.
4,
End of summer pursuits
It was a game of "boys catch girls" on the playground as
Jason Stewart pursuedKirstenCooper around the
equipment while Shawn Goodman kept watch. The
children are members of the Seaforth Co-operative
Children's Centre and took Some time out for play on
Friday afternoon.
HILGENDORFF PHOTOS
Doctor recruiter hired
BY TIM CUMMING
Mitchell Advocate Staff
Rural Ontario, including
Huron and Perth Counties,
needs doctors. The
Southwestern Rural Medicine
Unit ishiring someone to help
find them.
The Goderich-based unit has
hired a new community
development officer, Jay
Orchard, to bring more doctors
to rural and undcrscrviced
communities in Southwestern
Ontario.
The Ontario Ministry of
Health will fund the new
position, which is a real "feather
in the cap" for the Rural
Medicine Unit, according to Jim
Whaley, Executive Director of
the Grey -Bruce -Huron -Perth
District Health Council (DHC),
located'in Mitchell. Recruiting
and retaining doctors isn't just a
problem in Northern Ontario,
said Whaley.
"It's an issue for all rural
Ontario, right across rural
Canada."
Southwestern Ontario has
about 1,330 people for each
family doctor. The region needs
almost 250 new doctors to reach
the provincial average of 1,109.
"Compared to thc provincial
average the southwest is quite
underdoctored," said Dr. James
Rourke, Director of thc
Southwestern Ontario Rural
Medicine Unit. In Perth County,
there are about 1,390 people for
each family physician, a higher
number of people -per -physician
than both the provincial average
and the number for the region,
based on a 1996 study.
The Seaforth Medical Clinic
is an exception in this arca. It
will have seven doctors and has
been asked to provide service to
patients in neighbouring
municipalities. But other local
communities are feeling a
crunch.
Clinton, 18 km away from
Seaforth, may be the first town
in Perth and Huron counties to
be declared an underserviced
area, said Whaley.
The new recruiter, who began
Sept. 1, will be responsible for
identifying medical practice
opportunities in Southwestern
Ontario, promoting these
opportunities to graduating
medical students and assisting
communities in how to recruit
and retain doctors. He will also
be collecting data on the
number of physicians in local
areas. Orchard has more than
seven years' experience in
physician recruitment in
Canada.
The DHC for this region has
invited Dr. Rourke to speak at
the council's meeting in
Godcrich on Sept. 23. He said
he will address the doctor
shortage as one of the areas in
his speech.
While governments have
tried to address doctor shortages
in northern Ontario, "Southern
Ontario has been carrying along
getting worse and worse," said
Dr. Rourke. "What we're doing
now hasn't been working and
(we have to) look at why that
hasn't been working."
Why don't more doctors want
to come to rural communities in
Ontario? Dr. Rourke says them
are many reasons: doctors study
12 years of post -secondary
education ,including
undergraduate wdik, medical
degree and residence training)
and become accustomed to the
cities they live in; doctors often
have professional spouses who
can't find the same
opportunities in rural Ontario:
and doctors arc used to the
amenities of a big city.
Also, the role of the rural
doctor is different than that of a
family physician in a large
urban centre. The doctors have
to do emergency work, deliver
babies, do in-hospital care and
other functions which a
specialist would handle in the
city. Although such a practice
may be very rewarding, he said,
it is also very challenging.
The rural medicine unit is
hoping to have a recruitment
plan in effect by the end of thc
year.
Areas which have fewer
doctors than the provincial
average (about one doctor for
every 1,100 people) can apply
to be designated as an
underserviced arca.
No parents have become involved
FROM Page 1 Former Seaforth clerk Jim were with them.
Minutes of that meeting note Crocker, still board secretary "Parents, 1 need parents," he
Public Works superintendent before his official retirement said.
John Forrest suggested, the next day, suggested "that Liability was one of the
"Seaforth's 1998 road perhaps the skateboarders and arena manager's bigger initial
construction used 80 tonnes of some parents could be concerns back in July when
asphalt less than expected." included in the discussions staff noticed skateboarders
"Further discussion with the that establish rules for the use weren't using safety
arena manager resulted in the of the paved area." equipment on community
suggestion Scaforth donate In, the controversy that centres' property and their
sufficient asphalt to pave the followed the first trip to the "informal arrangement" ended
area," the minutes dump for the skateboarding with the ramps taken to the
continuc,"which could ramps this summer, Nesbitt dump.
possibly he used by asked the youths to come up The kids retrieved and
skateboarders in the summer with some rules and returned the equipment to
and flooded for an outdoor ice regulations. arena property without
surface in the winter." NO PARENTS permission.
Staff thought the arena The typewritten few the They originally asked to use
committee should consider the youths subsequently brought the area after police asked
matter before presenting it to an weren't sufficient, he said them to leave Seaforth's
Seaforth Council. last week. And no parents downtown core.
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