FERGUS – A brick farmhouse used to temporarily house healthcare staff has been "extremely helpful" for local physician recruitment efforts.
This is according to two members of the Wellington Healthcare Alliance who provided an update on the success of 965 Gartshore St. in Fergus, which was renovated into an accommodation space for healthcare professionals last April, during a council meeting Monday afternoon.
A popular destination for younger physicians with a home base in cities like Toronto or Hamilton wanting to keep their foot in the big city but are happy to come up for a week every one or two months, delegate Dr. Sarah Gower said of the 32 people hosted at the property last year, many came back.
The property can house up to four medical professionals at a time.
"It's been an enormous help to us that they're able to stay at the farmhouse because as you know local housing for locals is very expensive and hard to come by in the very short term," said Gower, during the meeting. "It's actually making a huge difference (and) I can't believe how we survived without it."
According to Gower, this year required more hospitalists and emergency physicians to be brought in which in turn prevented Groves Memorial Community Hospital (GMCH) from having to temporarily close its emergency department.
However, Gower said GMCH continues to be a popular destination for medical learners and estimates about 75 per cent of the area's current family doctors started as students and returned to work and raise their families.
The hospital also had "quite a good year" in terms of specialty recruitment.
"There's a lot of moving parts but I think we're holding it together quite well and are doing a great job of providing consistency of care," said Gower.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
