MAHC is currently developing a new physician recruitment and retention strategy, and it wants everyone from municipal politicians to real estate agents to take part.

“Recruitment and retention is a significant issue across the province . . . and it’s going to be an even more significant issue into the future,” said Barry Lockhart, CEO of MAHC. “We’ve been actively recruiting health-care professionals but we realized we needed a more comprehensive strategy. We’ve been meeting with physicians, hospital board members and municipal representatives to find out what that structure might be.”

What they’ve determined, said Lockhart, is to have one overarching recruitment committee with four subcommittees. The subcommittees will represent the areas of Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville and Burk’s Falls.

While the larger committee will be in charge of determining the overall needs of MAHC, the subcommittees will determine what they can provide for possible candidates.

“It could be the real estate in the area, which types of schools are available for their children or jobs for their spouses,” said Lockhart. “It’s driven by the individual interests of the candidates.”

Each of the subcommittees will contain various representatives from their communities, including physicians, real estate agents, education representatives and the mayors of Huntsville, Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, as well as the reeve of Burk’s Falls.

Lockhart said MAHC is specifically in need of family physicians, a radiologist and doctors of internal medicine.

“There have been some inconsistencies in the past . . . and we needed a structure that would match up the resources to the candidates,” he said.

Mayor Don Coates, who sits on the Bracebridge subcommittee, said co-operation is needed to succeed in such a competitive market.

“We’ve done recruitment at a municipal level for some time, but I spoke with Barry Lockhart in the fall and we agreed that a combined effort will help enhance the process,” said Coates. “Bracebridge is expanding and the population of doctors is aging and retiring. We need new doctors and I think we have a lot to offer them.”