GREENSTONE — By the end of the month, the Geraldton District Hospital will have a full complement of physicians and nurse practitioners for the first time in years.
Across Northwestern Ontario, hospitals and health care providers across the region have struggled to retain and attract health care professionals, which has caused significant pressure and strain on the system. Over the last few years, a number of hospitals have been forced to implement temporary emergency department closures due to staffing shortages.
Hospital CEO Darryl Galusha said the staffing situation got so dire in Geraldton that there many times during 2022 where the emergency department was on the brink of temporary closures.
“We lacked the physicians to support the emergency room coverage, as well as, the clinic coverage,” said Galusha.
Galusha said it took some creative thinking and the collaboration of many healthcare professionals in the region to fill the gaps.
“We are very blessed to have in the last year collaborated with Ontario Health and our partners to make this a reality,” Galusha said.
Galusha said the two physicians will work on opposite week shifts.
"They will work full-time here for two weeks and then they will see patients virtually for two weeks," he said. "We are currently rostering patients for the one physician that’s started, and then, the second physician that starts at the next of the month will be rostering patients as well.”
However, Galusha said a physician will be leaving the Geraldton Hospital in June, but he has noticed an uptake of interest from physicians to join their team.
He said one reason healthcare workers are becoming interested in working in the area is due to their recruitment and retention strategy.
“We’ve found some work-life balance for the physicians. They are not continuously going from the clinic to the ER and back and forth and seeing such incredibly heavy loads,” Galusha said.
Galusha said that having nurse practitioners contributes to relieving a lot of the workload strain on physicians, as well as filling gaps in coverage areas outside of Geraldton.
“We’ve been unable to recruit nurses to the Nakina clinic. We utilized nurse practitioners to provide some care and they are going out there to see some patients. It also allows the patients relief from having to drive in. We are seeing about 20 to 30 patients a day in these communities,” Galusha said.
Galusha explains that what they have learned from utilizing nurse practitioners has already been shared with other hospitals in Northwestern Ontario, saying stating that the La Verendrye Hospital in Fort Frances is finding success in implementing nurse practitioners to help create a work-life balance for physicians.
“Physicians are very happy and we are seeing that work-life balance and people get to be people. In the end, doctors are people," Galusha said. "They need time with their families. They need some downtime. They need time to enjoy their hobbies. We just want people to be happy where they’re at and that also increases opportunities to recruit and retain these much-needed professionals.”
