$1.8M initiative to attract 30 doctors to Timmins over 3 years

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 02, 2025 2:56 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

A caller $1.8 cardinal inaugural offering $60,000 "installation grants" aims to bring up to 30 caller doctors to Timmins implicit the adjacent 3 years, arsenic the metropolis struggles with a shortage of some household doctors and specialists. 

"Most towns and cities are offering recruitment wealth to person the physicians settle, acceptable up an office, wage disconnected loans and things similar that. So surely not thing unsocial to Timmins, but it is benignant of what we request to bash to enlistee immoderate physicians close now," said Dr. Lesley Griffiths, a household physician already moving successful the bluish Ontario city. 

The Timmins Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee, a assemblage based committee which the metropolis co-leads, announced that it had reached its fundraising extremity aft a $600,000 donation from mining company Agnico Eagle on Tuesday.

The metropolis and Timmins and District Hospital person each committed $200,000 per twelvemonth for 3 years, with the $60,000 installation assistance per doc funded arsenic by each 3 partners.

"The conflict with superior attraction close present is that there's overhead associated with that, truthful offsetting immoderate of those costs volition marque superior attraction much attractive," Griffiths said. 

"It's a batch easier for radical to enactment successful a infirmary mounting wherever they don't person to screen overhead and staffing and things similar that. So we privation radical to acceptable up store successful municipality and unfastened a superior attraction practice."

Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau said the extremity is to enlistee 10 caller physicians per twelvemonth implicit the adjacent 3 years.

"What's bully astir this assistance programme is that it's flexible, and truthful the doc recruits could take to use it nevertheless they want. If they privation to enactment it towards their pupil loans, they could bash that. If they privation to usage it arsenic a down outgo for a home, they could bash that oregon enactment it into a assemblage practice," Boileau said. 

"It's conscionable to assistance them get a small spot of a limb up arsenic they relocate into Timmins, but recognizing that it won't screen each of the expenses that travel with relocating."

Current shortage 

Corey Troupa, the doc recruiter for the Timmins hospital, said the metropolis of 44,000 is presently facing a shortage of astir 45 doctors.

"So what that entails is betwixt 15 to 20 household physicians and 25 specialists," helium explained. 

He stressed the value of attracting aesculapian students and residents by providing a affirmative acquisition with the extremity of encouraging them to instrumentality and signifier arsenic physicians successful Timmins aft completing their training.

"We request to marque definite that we're showing imaginable physicians who are students, residents oregon practicing, that we worth them," Troupa said. 

"That we attraction and that we privation to marque definite that we're capable to assistance them and their families found themselves successful Timmins and springiness ourselves an precocious hand."