Clarenville gets more aggressive in finding new MDs

A thriving town in eastern Newfoundland is stepping up its efforts to find six new family doctors, even though Clarenville has been unable to recruit a new practitioner in more than a decade.

With a growing population, a hospital, highway access and proximity to many attractions, Clarenville has many advantages over other rural communities that are also aiming to hire scarce medical talent.

Yet the town has been unable to find and keep physicians, with the majority of positions at the town's clinic still vacant.

Dr. Harold Crewe, who has been practising in Clarenville for 30 years, said that will change — because it has to.

"I don't think we recruited family physicians very aggressively," he told CBC News. "It just didn't happen … We're hoping we have a new approach this time."

The 11 doctors working in Clarenville work with patients covering a wide geographic area. The Clarenville area itself has a population of more than 6,000, and increased by almost 15 per cent, according to the latest census.

The shortage of physicians has posed challenges for patients, many of whom have had to rely on emergency rooms for primary care.

Tanya O'Connor, who moved to Clarenville two years ago, said it took almost 18 months to find a family doctor. In the interim, she took her children to the hospital, albeit reluctantly.

"They were not emergency things — things you don't want to burden the hospital with, but when you don't have a family doctor, you don't have a choice," she said.

Keith Rodway, manager of the Clarenville Medical Arts Clinic, said while the clinic has been grateful to find foreign-trained doctors, the solution for Clarenville will be in finding home-trained doctors.

"Although we do have two foreign doctors with us now, the stats show that those doctors tend to move on after they get in the province for a couple of years," he told CBC News earlier this month.

"You can't have a clinic full of foreign doctors. You need doctors that are Newfoundland-based and Newfoundlanders."

The Clarenville area is booming, helped by developments at Long Harbour and Bull Arm.

However, Crewe said his medical practice involves long-time residents who are now in their senior years. His own caseload involves 40 to 50 patients a day, far above the national average of 100 patients per week.

"Because my patients are largely geriatric, older people, they're more complicated. And they take a lot more time than looking at, say, an infected ear," he said.