Bluewater Health is looking to bring a family medicine residency program to Sarnia.
Chief of Staff Dr. Mike Haddad said over the past few years, the hospital has been working closely with Western University's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry to establish a program.
Haddad said it would be similar to the program at CEEH in Petrolia, established in 2011.
"We need one for Sarnia as well and there's many reasons for this," he said. "One is that the whole community needs more primary care providers, including family physicians. Second, usually if you train professionals locally, there's a higher chance at retaining. And third, it's part of basically trying to train the next generation of physicians for the whole province and the country, but definitely we have our own local needs that we need to look after as well."
Petrolia's two-year program, soon to be three-year, welcomes two residents per year.
Haddad said to have a successful residency, you need to have commitment on both sides, the actual learner and also the educators.
"So, Petrolia's been awesome in terms of providing that type of education and commitment to their residents, and we want to replicate this in Sarnia under the whole umbrella of Bluewater Health in general."
Haddad said having residency programs is a complex process, and that you need the hospitals, clinical sites, physicians, universities and the government to all work together to make it happen. He said funding from the provincial Ministry of Health is only one, albeit important, aspect of the process.
Haddad also said they're limited by how many educators they have.
"Residency training is intense and there's multiple rotations and they need to spend time in both family medicine and specialty rotations, like emergency, OBGYN, psychiatry, etcetera. So, we need to ensure that we don't just take residents but we have to be fair to the learners that they have a good experience and good training so we have to expose them, and they have to spend time with a variety of physicians to teach them."
Haddad said Sarnia-Lambton has many providers who are working quite hard, and way beyond the classic age of retirement, who are trying to look after thousands of patients.
"And I think many of them would like to slow down and retire, and it's very difficult to do so without replacements. I think over the next three to five years we will potentially have thousands of patients without primary care providers if we don't work very hard to replenish and replace."
Blue Coast Primary Care Recruitment Coordinator Carly Cox said with five new physicians recruited last year, some who have yet to begin practicing, the organization has successfully replaced all but one physician seeking retirement in Sarnia.
"We are actively recruiting to Lambton Shores who is in desperate need of a minimum of two family physicians, and Lambton County still requires 10.2 additional physicians to serve our unattached patients."
Cox said Blue Coast has recruited 39 family physicians to Lambton County, including 23 over the past 10 years.
Meanwhile, a Sarnia woman has launched a petition to bring more residency programs to the area.
Marilyn Gifford, 71, said the goal of the petition is to bring awareness to the lack of doctors locally. She said she's brought her concerns to Sarnia-Lambton community leaders, including MPP Bob Bailey.
"I think he's been working towards this but I think we also need a public outcry to let everyone know that this is what the citizens want. We need more medical care. About 41,000 people in Sarnia-Lambton to be without a doctor very soon is absolutely horrifying."
Gifford said the petition will help ensure local leaders know the needs of their constituents.
"I don't want to be the old lady that goes to Queen's Park, I would like to be the old lady that goes to Queen's Park with my supporters and 1,000 signatures. That is my personal goal."
On Thursday, the province announced it is further expanding the number of medical school spots to historic highs while helping Ontario students become doctors in the province, whether they studied at home or abroad.
In a media release, the government said starting this year, it is investing an additional $33 million over three years to add another 100 undergraduate medical school seats and another 154 postgraduate medical training seats beginning next year.
With files from Josh Boyce