Since the municipality launched a family doctor recruitment and retention program in 2022, nine doctors have come to Prince Edward County. Most have taken over existing practices, and two have established new ones.

Chief recruiter Adam Hambly and the Prince Edward Family Health Team’s Executive Director, Barinder Gill, gave an update to Council September 9 and noted they are cautiously optimistic a third doctor will open a new practice by the end of the year.

Three of the nine physicians have joined the Emergency Room group, improving physician coverage at Memorial Hospital. Mr. Hambly explained that while ER coverage is not directly a PEFHT concern, having expanded ER uptake benefits the entire team.

Another success has been the Healthcare Connect Premium. In the first-of-its-kind program in Ontario, now duplicated by other communities, Council pledged $25,000 stipends per physician for rostering 250 unattached patients on the physician wait list. 1750 residents have found a doctor since the program launched in January 2024. At that point 2100 people were on the waitlist.

Currently, the list is at 1029. Mr. Gill estimates the total number of unattached patients in Prince Edward County is about 4,000.

“People were kind of disillusioned with the HCC waitlist because unattached patients weren’t coming off right away,” said Mr. Gill. “Once word spread there were folks getting rostered, new people started signing up.”

One of the recently recruited physicians is expected to take on 800 patients from the wait list.

“Collectively, this represents a significant improvement in access to primary care for PEC residents,” he said.

County Docs has launched a U.S.-focused campaign to attract American family physicians to the County.

Mr. Hambly and Mr. Gill advocated for a merit-based increase to County Docs funding starting in 2026, moving the funding envelope from $150,000 to $160,500. The requested seven percent increase offsets program cost increases related to economic uncertainty and provides a cost of living adjustment to the physician recruiter salary.

Deliberations for the County’s 2026 operation and capital budgets are expected to take place in early December.