More good news on the doctor recruitment front in Saugeen Shores.
Effective February 1st — Doctor Erich Hanel will cover 15 shifts a week in the Emergencey Room at Saugeen Memorial Hospital for a one year period.
Doctor Hanel is Canadian but has just finished medical school near Chicago.
He and his wife are about to become parents, and they will lease the town-owned condominium that was recently provided by the Society of Energy Professionals.
Recruitment Chair Kevin Carter says Doctor Hanel saw the opportunity to set up in a small town and prefer it over working in a city.
Mayor Mike Smith says they’re seeing great results with recruitment in Saugeen Shores, and Doctor Hanel will mean number 15 since efforts began.
It’s good news for the ER at Saugeen Memorial as efforts continue to find doctors to staff the facility — just four months ago it was in danger of closing on weekends but provincial support was extended, giving officials more time to find doctors.
Carter says in the next four to six weeks — a new professional physician recruiter will be hired to help find doctors for both Saugeen Shores and Kincardine thanks to involvement, and 500 thousand dollars from Bruce Power.
He says it’s a two year program and they want to recruit three or four doctors for each community, but he hopes it continues if the effort is successful.
Carter does note that two doctors are planning to leave in 2010, but he will not say who they are or their reasons for leaving.
The Bruce Power recruitment committee is chaired by the company’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Murray Elston, who also served as Ontario Health Minister during the 1980’s.
Smith says Carter, his committee, and council deserve credit for the recruitment success and for supporting municipal investment in the Doctor Earl Health Centre in Port Elgin, and the clinic on Grey Street in Southampton.