Chatham-Kent councillors are being asked to set aside funding for financial incentives to help attract family physicians to the local community.
During a meeting on Monday, council will consider a motion to establish a Primary Care Family Physician Incentive Reserve with $140,000 transferred annually from Chatham-Kent’s strategic reserves for a total of $420,000 for the remainder of CK’s 2024-2027 multi-year budget.
The next term of council would then consider base funding for the reserve during the 2028-2031 multi-year budget process.
The motion also proposes making the reserve funds available to the four primary care organizations in Chatham-Kent for providing incentives to newly established physicians. These organizations include the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team, Chatham-Kent Community Health Centres, the Thames Valley Family Health Team, and the Tilbury District Family Health Team.
If passed, the primary care organizations will be able to offer incentives of up to $25,000 to each physician when no additional community grants are available. In the event that community grants are available, up to $15,000 per physician will be made available.
The same organizations may also apply for up to $20,000 in additional funding every five years to expand clinical space to accommodate new physician offices.
To address the shortage of family doctors in the municipality, council has already approved spending $85,000 annually to fund the Chatham-Kent Family Physician Recruitment and Retention Task Force.
According to the recruitment task force, Chatham-Kent currently has 32,421 residents who do not have a family doctor. To accommodate those patients, to fill existing positions with local family health teams, and to account for 11 practicing physicians nearing retirement age, the municipality is in need of around 45 family physicians.