Cape Breton group thinks outside the box to recruit and retain doctors

A community group in Glace Bay, N.S., has taken it upon themselves to try and recruit physicians -- and so far it's been a success.

Bay It Forward’s efforts are paying off at a time when the number of people without a family doctor continues to grow in the province.

“We're very proud over the last three to four years and even through COVID we've been able to recruit three new doctors for Glace Bay,” says member David MacKeigan.

Currently, there are more than 100,000 people without a family physician in Nova Scotia. While government recruitment and retention efforts continue, communities are becoming more involved.

In Glace Bay, potential doctors are taken on a tour of the Miners Museum, a boat ride along the shoreline and jigging for mackerel.

“It's very important, because most of the doctors have families and they want to know that these communities are a great place to raise their children and spend the rest of their lives and make it their forever home,” says MacKeigan.

A similar effort is underway in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. The community is working with the local Muslim community to establish the town's first mosque and to retain Muslim doctors.

“Governments and health authorities are doing their thing trying to find people and get them here,” says Mayor Percy Farwell. “I think a big part of our job is to make sure when they get here they have a lifestyle and experience that will make them want to stay. We can't be in a constant cycle of crisis management.”

In a province with more than half a million people, nearly a quarter are without a family doctor.

Farwell says it's important to think outside the box and in his community it's all about inclusion.

“We try to create awareness in the community that we have fellow citizens here who are celebrating something different than we're use to celebrating,” he says. “It might not be Christmas or Easter, and it might not be something that we fully understand, but we could learn a lot from and we could support them and celebrate with them.”

“I think that anything you can do that makes physicians more comfortable in their community, makes them feel more welcome, makes them feel more at home is going to pay off in results” says Cape Breton physician Margaret Fraser.

Fraser applauds Gander's efforts and says Cape Breton has lost doctors in the past because some resources were not available to them.

“We need to think so far outside of the box that there's no box, because what we've been doing for years isn't working and we have a real problem.”

Bay It Forward says the first step is getting a doctor to commit to coming to the community. The second step is making them feel comfortable and getting them to stay.