After 24 years in service, the Blue Coast Primary Care- Recruitment and Retention program will dissolve at the end of the month.
The program launched to help attract family physicians to Sarnia-Lambton.
Blue Coast Primary Care Chair Don Burnard said a lack of funding from area municipalities has contributed to the decision to shut down.
He said recently the Ministry of Health provided additional funding for physicians but nothing for recruitment.
"You can't operate a program if you don't have the finances, so financial support has got to come from municipalities, individuals in supporting primary care physicians in Sarnia-Lambton," said Burnard.
The decision also comes as healthcare needs evolve and structures shift.
He added there was discussion with community stakeholders and funders about the decision.
Since the program started, it has brought in over 56 doctors, 39 of them over the last 13 years.
Burnard said across the county, approximately 20,000 people are still without a family doctor.
"We hope things will carry on in such a manner that it will have to be left up to the Ontario Health Team or recruitment through Bluewater Health,' he said.
Burnard said if the funding were to come forward and there was support from all of the local municipalities, the model could change.
"We are still underserviced even having 55 new doctors to the area but [with] the recruiting process taken place there still needs to be an ongoing program to do that," he said.
Operations have begun to wind down with the program ending on Sunday, August 31.
"We are sorry we have to close our doors in this way. If we had additional funding either from municipalities or from the Ministry of Health in terms of providing dollars to bring new doctors into Sarnia-Lambton," he said. "Recruitment is important and we have demonstrated that over the last 24 years."
Burnard recommends opening up medical universities to provide additional spots.
In the 2023 budget, Sarnia City Council approved a yearly grant of $80,000 for the program for four years.
Mayor Mike Bradley said the next step will be deciding what happens to the money that is committed until next year.
"Those discussions will take place and I think they can be positive in the end and I commend the group that did this," said Bradley. "It's been a tough, tough haul for them and I think it's just reached the point where there's so many other incentives out there for doctors, there's so many other competitors that I think it became just too much for them."
According to Bradley, the discussion about that funding will be made during budget deliberations.
He said Bluewater Health and Blue Coast Primary Care have been advised to come back to council about how they want that money reallocated.
"I'm optimistic we can work something out," said Bradley. "The hospital is interested in some major role in this beyond what they do for physician recruitment in the hospital, we've had those discussions over the last couple of months. "
He also said there is a need for more physicians in Sarnia-Lambton.
"The province should be taking a leadership role, so we don't have communities playing off each other and coming up with different incentives and different grants and different ways of approaching this. We need a more consistent approach right across the province," said Bradley.