Guest Mala2003 Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 Would certain areas of say Toronto be considered "underserviced"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sil Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I really don't think so. Undercervised areas are usually rural, although someone told me Thunder Bay was considered undercerviced eventhough they are not rural (this is second hand info so I am not sure). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UOMeds05 Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I too am pretty sure that there is no area in the GTA that is considered underserviced although I may stand to be corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I'm pretty sure T.O is NOT underserviced, at least not by current definitions. But you might be surprised by what IS considered underserviced. The Ontario government offers med students financial compensation for signing up to practice in "underserviced" areas in Ontario, and when I looked at the list I was surprised by some of the communities - yes, Thunder Bay was on the list, along with a LOT of smaller communities, but so was Guelph and Waterloo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PhantomPhoenix Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 Do the incentives that are given to work in underserviced areas apply also to specialists or just family physicians. Waterloo, Guelph...etc. are significant communities with hospitals so I was wondering if a specialist could get some incentives for going there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UOMeds05 Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I am under the impression that that is very much the case. These incentives are often initiatives taken on by the community itself... so it depends on the demand of the community. For example, there are communities that offer huge signing bonuses (eg: i know of an ER doc that received one to go to a rather large Northwester city)... others offering free office space, vehicles etc... although it appears as though the best "deals/offers" are from the smaller more isolate communities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MayFlower1 Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I believe "underserviced" may be defined a number of ways, however, I believe if a significant number of people in any given area are unable to find a family doctor, for example, this should be considered "underserviced". I believe the rural areas are a special type of underserviced area as fewer docs want to live and practice in these areas. The rural community is likely "severely underserviced" in some cases. However, Ottawa, is considered by many to be underserviced with respect to availability of family docs. My wife opened up her practice about 9 months ago and already has 1000+ patients...unfortunately we have to turn down new patients often...and there doesn't seem to be anywhere else for them to go except walk-in clinics...and we all know the drawback of that re: quality of medical care...continuity, etc. I would guess there are several areas of T.O. which are "underserviced"... Just my two cents... Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted January 21, 2003 Report Share Posted January 21, 2003 I believe that specialists may take advantage of the underserviced area benefits provided that the area is 'underserviced' with respect to their specialty....For example, a neurosurgeon would probably not be of much use compared to a family doctor in a small rural town with a 20 bed community hospital....In contrast, somebody like an Ob/Gyn or Radiologist or anesthetist would likely be of more use in these communities. As an example, Guelph is really hurting for pediatricians...there is now only one pediatrician that is willing to cover the hospital in Guelph....which means that nobody will deliver babies in Guelph if that one pediatrician isn't around to check the kid out after they are born...this means that when that pediatrician isn't on call (because they can't be 24/7) mothers from Guelph have to go to Cambridge to have their babies...causing lots of stress because they won't know if their baby will be born in Guelph or Cambridge until the day of...So, I would imagine that any pediatrician that was willing to go to Guelph and cover the hospital would be able to benefit from any underserviced area benefits....and if they weren't, I think that the program needs to be reformed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted January 22, 2003 Report Share Posted January 22, 2003 The incentive program to which I was referring is the infamous "Free" tuition program offered by the government (which is not really free, and doesn't cover tuition, but I digress.) They'll pay your tuition up to $10,000 and up to 4 years if you practice in an "underserviced" region, and I'm pretty sure the program is open to both specialists and Family Physicians (aka GPs.) And, knowing the government, it wouldn't surprise me if they have NOT gone to the effort to figure out what specialists are needed where. BTW, it's true some communities offer incentive packages for physicians to practice there. That's actually above and beyond the package listed above. Plus, some communities are offering to pay 100% of overhead. Rural family medicine is becoming quite the lucrative career - if you're concerned about such things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ploughboy Posted January 23, 2003 Report Share Posted January 23, 2003 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi UWO'5, Actually the Ontario MoH seems pretty organized about what specialists are needed where. There's a regularly updated .pdf on their website listing specialist vacancies by community, and another showing GP vacancies. A search for "LADAU" on the MoH website should turn it up. I was absolutely gob-smacked when I first looked at the GP list. In addition to the usual one-horse towns[1], there's a number of good-sized southern Ontario cities on the list (Orangeville, Guelph, Niagara Falls, KW...). I think the emphasis of the specialist list is on Northern communities, though. pb [1] My blink-and-you-miss-it hometown is on the list. Please Brer Fox, don't fling me in dat brier patch... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (OpenBSD) Comment: For info see www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE+MFYS/HNgbK3bC2wRAm8GAJ0fZBVm4f7iypZlW5HoM2J8LTXjkQCfXJfU 11wDPJ/EGuLXWk49nfR4Yhg= =1uUd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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