Province says 6 more MDs joining Health P.E.I., including 4 associate physicians

The province said it has hired four associate physicians, one physician assistant and two specialists, most of them starting work next year, as it continues to recruit heavily to ease P.E.I.'s health-care crunch. 

Health Minister Mark McLane said the department has had some success over the past 12 months, with 37 physicians hired in a calendar year that saw about 14 retiring or otherwise leaving the P.E.I. health system. In comparison, Health P.E.I. hired 24 physicians in 2023.

"We're going in the right direction. We're very proud of that," he said.

For the first time ever, McLane said, associate physicians and physician assistants are joining the provincial health-care system.

Summerside will have two associate physicians working in family medicine later this year, and early next year, one associate physician will work in psychiatry in both Charlottetown and Montague. Another associate physician is set to start work in early 2025 in the internal medicine field, working in progressive care in Charlottetown. 

Several other provinces already license physician assistants to work with doctors in a variety of settings such as clinics, family practices, emergency departments and operating rooms. P.E.I. already has one physician assistant working in family medicine in Alberton.

Physician assistants are health-care professionals who work in collaboration with physicians and other health-care providers.

Getting eligible associate physicians into the system takes time, McLane said. There can be hurdles with licences, as well as with education requirements and the need for candidates to have worked a set minimum number of hours in the field within the last five years.

"Somebody who may have been a foreign-trained physician and came to Canada 10 years ago, unfortunately, would not be eligible. Obviously the pace of health care is quite fast," he said.

The province is still receiving a lot of inquiries from foreign-trained physicians wanting to work in P.E.I. health care, but McLane said they do need to match appropriate specialties with a supervising physician willing to supervise the work. 

"We can't match a radiologist, for example, with ob-gyn [obstetrics and gynecology]... We do need those physicians to match. So the interest has been quite exciting," he said.

Specialists hired

This fall, P.E.I.'s only full-time blood oncologist told Health P.E.I. he was planning to leave the job at the end of November. Health P.E.I. planned to transfer patients to Dr. Philip Champion, but now he has said he intends to retire in the spring.

Changes are coming to P.E.I.'s patient registry. What will they mean if you're waiting for a doctor?

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Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser is overseeing some shifts in how people will get medical care on the Island. She says medical homes and neighbourhoods are becoming easier to set up, the number of steps involved in recruiting doctors has been slashed — and some changes are coming to how P.E.I.'s patient registry will work.

In the wake of that news, McLane announced in the legislature that a medical oncologist has been hired and will join the staff of Charlottetown's Queen Elizabeth Hospital in September 2025, as will an internal medicine physician. 

Recruitment does continues at Health P.E.I., McLane said, especially in light of the fact that some physicians who retire have such large patient loads that it can take between one and three doctors to replace a single practitioner.

On the bright side, McLane said the province has a lot to offer, citing the move to electronic medical records, the new medical school taking shape at UPEI, and collaborative working team practices.

"The new physician services agreement, absolutely I think, has got a lot of people's attention, and again certain aspects of that agreement are quite strong on work-life balance and how we support our physicians," he said.