As a visiting physician at Northern Ontario, Danika Switzer is deeply aware of the health care crisis in weak communities.
“It is sad to see how bad things can be found,” the Switzer said, who acts as a locomot, fills roles on temporary grounds in rural or remote areas.
Switzer has been in high demand since the locomum returns to work after leaving his family exercise in Wawa, Onts due to the burnout over two years ago.
Rural and Northern Ontario are competing to recruit the locomot by offering huge financial incentives amid a severe shortage of doctors affecting the health care system. Hospitals are dying for doctors from relatively small pools of local places for doctors, often as a way to prevent the closure of the emergency department which have become more common in recent years.
“But the reality is that most people are booked,” Switzer said in an interview recently. “And even if you want to help that city to prevent really closing, you can’t do because you are already working elsewhere.”
The terrible competition of hospitals for local recruitment has triggered concerns about the same access to health care, some doctors and experts said that it leaves small communities and hospitals weak as they may not have the necessary financial resources to woo doctors.
While funding comes mainly from provincial programs, some hospitals increase the salary for locomot shifts to tap their operating budget or money which are available due to the posts of vacant employees.
But Mike Kotil, a doctor in Wava and One of the former Switzer’s colleagues said that the approach is not ideal.
He said in an interview, “If you top with an X dollar, the next city below the road will be up with X Plus, you know, X Plus Y,” he said in an interview.
“So, this is a competition that is bad for hospitals and bad for towns. It should actually be.”
He said that the Lady Done Health Center, where he works, has so far avoided topping the salary for the locoms and its “excellent” recruiters are able to ensure a stable supply of such physicians.
But this is not the case in some other hospitals.
According to an advertisement posted on the hospital’s social media page, Timins and District Hospital has currently offered up to $ 18,500 to work in the hospital to work for a week in August. According to its website, the North Bay Regional Health Center pays up to an eight -hour shift to $ 2,700 per emergency medical locomot.
The small current site of Manitoulin Health Center offers $ 250 per hour to physicians who take ER shifts in July and August. Prominent physician Anne McDonald’s said that the hospital has a distance of about $ 160 per hour for night and weekend shift from the Ministry of Health in the hospital and is at the top of that amount, so that it can remain “competitive”, using funds from unfolded positions in the hospital, prominent physician Annie McDonld’s said.
Some experts say that some experts say, flexible scheduling and low administrative work that comes with being a locomot, recruitment of some hospitals and full -time doctors. Financial incentives for the locomot, including housing, flights, car rental and other expenses, are ineffective in the long run, they add.
Switzer said that the goal should make permanent positions more attractive so that doctors remain in communities.
“We cannot recruit our way out of a retention crisis,” he said.
Nevertheless, doctors agree that Locom plays an important role in rural and northern areas of the province.
Dr. Anjali Oberi said, “We need a locom and local program,” Dr. Anjali Oberi said, who works with her husband Kotil in Wawa.
“We need to support the locoms, but if the support is such that it de-infinate to work and stay in the community, we have a problem.”
Oberi and Kotil worked for about two years to take advantage of the lifestyle before settling in Wawa in 1998.
But “the locomotor landscape was quite different then,” said Oberi.
He mainly worked during summer, covered for doctors who were on leave or other short -term leaves. But the locomom is now often used to fill the vacant positions, and he has helped Wava to keep his hospital and primary care center running during a shortage of a deteriorating doctor in the community in recent years.
McDonald, the head of the small current site of Manitoulin Health Center, said that there is a lot of pressure on rural doctors, taking care of patients who are often their neighbors, friends or relatives due to lack of doctor. Some cannot handle that charge and instead of locos.
McDonald’s said, “I really feel that the locomo lifestyle is less about money and more about the lack of burden of ongoing responsibilities, which lose weight to physicians.”
According to Ontario Medical Association, there are more than 350 physician vacancies in northern communities. This deficiency can be worse as about half doctors are expected to retire in the next five years.
The association always advocates for a system that encourages doctors to provide reliable and continuous care at a specific place, said Zainab Abdurrahman, president of the OMA. But the lack of doctor is so intense that the locomot has become an essential part of the system.
“It’s not that having a locomot means that you are not hiring and you are not trying to recruit actively,” he said.
Some new medical schools graduates want to find time to find out their options because the administrative burden of financial costs and an exercise holds them back, they said, while others want to be local to help the undested communities.
Now Abdurrahman said that the financial incentives offered by some hospitals lead to inequalities, they are just a symptom of a large issue.
“The use of such additional incentives is actually a reflection of frustration in the health care system,” she said. “People are making options to be competitive because they are feeling obstructed.”
The Ministry of Health says its rural emergency medical coverage investment funds that changed the temporary locomot program in April, helping hospitals to improve access to emergency care throughout the year, offering them to improve their ability to rent the locom and recruit permanent doctors.
The commitment came out of the conversation between the government and the OMA for a new physician service agreement.
Ministry spokesperson EMA Popovic also pointed to the province’s investments with the aim of connecting each Operon with primary care provider by 2029, and efforts to add hundreds of seats to medical schools.
Many doctors say that other incentives, such as improvement in access to education, more leave time and low administrative paperwork, also require to recruit and maintain full -time doctors.
For Switzer, being a locom, gives him more control over his program but it comes with a cost.
“I have a house, I am not on him. I have a garden. I am not there … I remember a lot of moments with my family,” he said.
This report of Canadian Press was first published on 31 July 2025.
Sharif Hasan, Canadian Press
