SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The president of the Canadian Medical Association met with the premier and health minister last week to discuss the territorial budget as well as ways to combat the family doctor shortage.

Dr. Anna Reid, left, president of the NWT Medical Association, and Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Anne Doig met with Premier Floyd Roland and Health Minister Sandy Lee last week to talk about shortages in family doctors, among other needs in the NWT. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

"There aren't enough family physicians in Canada," said Dr. Anne Doig after the meeting.

"We're short to the point that about five million Canadians don't have a family physician."

Dr. Anna Reid, president of the NWT Medical Association, works at the emergency room at Stanton Territorial Hospital, and said she sees a lot of people coming to the hospital with something that's not a true emergency because they can't get an appointment with a family physician in the city for two weeks.

"Delivering care in the emergency room is very expensive compared to delivering care in a clinic setting," said Reid. "That's part of why the consolidated clinic is being built."

She said the opening of the $6.5 million downtown medical clinic this spring will improve health care services in Yellowknife.

"Retention and recruitment is more of an issue for smaller communities: Inuvik, Hay River and in Fort Simpson, they have a lot of trouble," said Reid. "Hay River has been without a regular doctor for several years now."

There are 57 physicians registered with the NWT Medical Association, of whom 54 work in Yellowknife. The association doesn't have a specific recruitment target, but specialists such as pediatricians and internists are in short supply, according to the group. Reid suggested the government work to create an overall recruiting strategy that is territory-wide rather than having communities compete with each other.

"You're not going to make someone stay in the North by just throwing money at them," said Reid.

"When people feel like they are included and really worth something then they want to be part of that community and stay. So we'd like to work with the government to help them to get us more involved so that physicians feel like they have a voice and that we have something more to offer."

Doig agreed, stating money isn't the answer to attracting doctors to remote communities.

"You have to get them to feel like they're part of the bigger picture of health care planning in their communities," said Doig.

"There is a tendency sometimes to do health care planning by bureaucrats and no one remembers to speak with the stakeholders or the people in the front lines," said Reid.

Both Reid and Doig said dialogue between the government and physicians has increased. Last week's meeting was an example of this, said Doig.

"My presence here was just as a catalyst to make that happen," she said.