All three hospitals administered by the MICS group are in crisis mode… grappling with a shortage of doctors. So CEO Paul Chatelain will be at the Cochrane council meeting Tuesday night, asking for help for Lady Minto.
Chatelain says each of the hospitals in Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and Matheson needs two GPs, including a general surgeon in Cochrane.
He says that MICS offers incentives for doctors who will treat inpatients and do shifts in ER, apart from their work in their own clinics.
“There’s no incentive package for just primary care,” he notes, “so we’re actually approaching council to help us out in that respect.”
He’s hoping that council can set up its own incentive package aimed at primary care physicians… much like the one the hospital offers for doctors who will do more.
“So we have our generous package if you come work for both clinic, ER and inpatients. But a lot of these physicians now coming out of school just want to do primary care. Well, we can’t really help them.”