On the first evening of operating budget deliberations, a service level change was approved by North Bay City Council that, while it does not affect the City of North Bay's bottom line, could make a difference in its desire to recruit and retain doctors.
The Family Physician Practice Start-up Grant Program began as a three-year agreement with the North Bay Regional Health Centre in 2015 and included $175,000 in annual funding from the City of North Bay. The City's contribution has been reduced over time to $50,000 annually, and the fund's balance as of fall 2024 was $137,961.
According to the operating budget documents, "Although the agreement has expired, North Bay Regional Health Centre has stayed true to the purpose and use of the original agreement. This service level request is to broaden the scope of authorized uses to include other doctors as the regional hospital has conveyed this to be an important community need."
Essentially, the fund's reach will be expanded to address the doctor shortage in family medicine, as well as the shortage of emergency medicine physicians and other in-need specialists.
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CAO John Severino noted municipal officials have already had discussions with NBRHC to "clean up the agreement" and include the broadened scope. "We've agreed to re-initiate talks that were initiated long ago," he clarified.
Mayor Peter Chirico showed strong support for the measure, agreeing that the fund should be open to other specialists and doctors with a focus on emergency medicine. "They would love to get 20 family physicians ... we're not graduating enough for that."
Coun. Tanya Vrebosch suggested some family doctors are reluctant to sign contracts with the regional hospital that include mandatory emergency department responsibilities, leading to retention issues with dissatisfied family physicians, including one she knows of who left a practice in North Bay for a nearby rural clinic without the same emergency privileges and expectations.
Although not a part of the service level request, Vrebosch further suggested infrastructure, or lack thereof, is a hindrance to North Bay's recruitment of family doctors. She suggested purchasing a building exclusively for doctors and their staffs, a turnkey operation of sorts to entice doctors to come to North Bay ready to do what they do best without the sometimes prohibitive administrative headaches associated with opening a practice.
Although the suggestion from Vrebosch fell outside the financial discussion, Mayor Chirico encouraged her to bring the matter forward to the council.
The meetings are open to the public and will begin at 5:30 p.m. through Thursday in the Mayor's Boardroom on the fifth floor of North Bay City Hall. There is no live stream available for this week's deliberations.