By Rosalind Russell – Espanola’s Regional Hospital & Health Centre’s incoming CEO, Martin Lees, made a presentation to council this week calling on council to consider a donation towards physician recruitment.
As part of his presentation, Lees reviewed the various programs the hospital offers and the treatment they provided over the last year.
He also pointed out that the hospital is also a health care campus, and there are several vacancies for physicians and locums due to the difficulties of attracting health care workers to smaller, rural hospitals.
Lees says the government has said that every Ontarian should be attached to a primary care team by 2029, so to meet that mandate, more family doctors are needed in Espanola, the town has five but needs two more, as well as two more nurse practitioners.
He adds there are incentives being offered to potential physicians, locums and nurse practitioners, including housing.
Mayor Doug Gervais thanked him for the presentation telling Lees that the request for $20,000 will be part of the 2026 municipal budget discussions.
https://pub-espanola.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=13532
Screenshots of presentation by Rosalind Russell
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