HALIFAX: The Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage has approved funding for community led projects in Guysborough, Canso and Port Hawkesbury to recruit and retain doctors.
The government has provided $10,000 to the Town of Port Hawkesbury to support a new program to connect community volunteers with new physicians.
Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton said the town has been investing in tools to work directly with doctors already in the community, as well as doctors and other health professionals interested in locating to the region.
Some of those resources include a video promoting Port Hawkesbury as a place to live, work and play with a great quality of life. The town has invested in marketing materials and has plans to continue working with doctors.
“In order to have a strong, sustainable health care model, we definitely want to make sure that we are not experiencing gaps in all of the health care that keeps our communities healthy,” the mayor explained.
On March 2, a group of potential physicians visited Port Hawkesbury. Following March’s regular town council meeting the next day, town councillor Trevor Boudreau, who is also chair of the town’s health care recruitment committee, said there was interest from the physicians, noting he has “high hopes” one will choose Port Hawkesbury.
Boudreau said the cohort visited schools in the town, went to the Strait Area Yacht club and toured recreation and cultural facilities in the area. Chisholm-Beaton said many of the visitors fell in love with the town’s waterfront.
On the same night that Richmond Municipal Council unanimously passed a motion to provide $15,000 in funding to Cape Breton South Recruiting for Health, council also approved a motion for the municipality to partner with the Town of Port Hawkesbury to recruit health care professionals to the region.
Town and county officials will now engage with representatives of the Strait-Richmond Hospital, the Dr. Kingston Memorial Community Health Centre, St. Anne Community and Nursing Care Centre, the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce, the Cape Breton Partnership, and other partners.
Chisholm-Beaton said strong partnerships with the chamber of commerce, the business community and neighbouring communities have helped efforts to recruit and retain.
“It’s important that we’re coming together as a community to build a strong support network around our medical health professionals,” Chisholm-Beaton said. “Doctors and other professionals are coming with families and it’s important that every member of the family feels welcome.
“We all have a stake in ensuring that we have a great health care model here, certainly that it doesn’t have any gaps.”
Eastern Memorial Hospital Foundation has received $10,000 to support the creation of a new team, which will develop a welcome and promotion plan for the community. The group will consult and support new physicians and build an online portal for newcomers to find cultural events and activities in the area.
“Recruitment and retention of physicians in rural and remote Nova Scotia is vital to our health-care system, enabling our communities to access health care where they live, work and play,” John Bent, chair of the Eastern Memorial Hospital Foundation said. “This new project will help support the recruitment and retention of health-care professionals by highlighting everything our community has to offer and tailoring that offering to physicians and their families.”
The Guysborough Memorial Hospital Foundation has also received a $9,400 grant to help form a Welcome Home committee, which will develop a web-based video guide to the community designed to introduce new doctors and their families to the community.
“The Guysborough Memorial Hospital Foundation is pleased to have received funding from government that will allow us to support the recruitment and retention of physicians to our community,” noted Bill Innis, chair of the Guysborough Memorial Hospital Foundation.
The next round of applications for the program opens April 1. For more information, visit: https://novascotia.ca/culture-innovation-fund-healthy-communities/ or check out Nova Scotia’s Culture Action Plan at: https://novascotia.ca/culture.