Docs By the Bay was established in July of 2017 when the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation approached the City of Quinte West to partner in a program that would focus on the recruitment and retention of family physicians in our community. While QHC Trenton Memorial Hospital was not in need of physicians, the community was. Local physicians were retiring and leaving up to 3500 patients without a family doctor. This, combined with the continued growth in our population, meant that there were thousands of residents without access to primary healthcare. Knowing that the new younger physicians carry a roster of a approximately 1,000 patients, this meant the need for family physicians in this community would have to be doubled.

In 2019, the Municipality of Brighton joined the program and Docs By The Bay now serves a total population of 56,000. As well, support is provided to 8-Wing Trenton military dependents who are in need of a primary healthcare provider.

Docs By The Bay strives to ensure every resident in the community has a family doctor and that every family doctor recruited – stays.

To achieve the goals of the program, the primary objectives are:

• To Improve the number of physician prospects “experiencing” the community. To coordinate medical education opportunities for medical students and medical residents including soliciting preceptors.
• To increase awareness of the community and the need for physicians by: attending job fairs, building a database of potential prospects, executing a monthly newsletter, engaging through social media etc.
• To coordinate engaging site and community tours that include all physician opportunities (CHC, Family Health Team, sole practitioner offices), real estate options, welcome baskets, invitations to social events, and more.
• To strengthen relationships with current physicians by creating a collegial medical community, hosting events, and recognizing their years of service, national doctors’ day, birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, babies’ births etc.

Docs By The Bay has achieved great success in 3 short years. To date we have signed 10 new family physicians to practice in Quinte West and Brighton. The growth in our success rate, is evident by the fact that we signed our first physician in 2018, signed 4 in 2019 and have signed 5 thus far in 2020. We are currently working with 10 other physicians whom we hope will make a commitment to our community within the next year.

How can you help??? As a community, you can help support our physician recruitment efforts by contacting us with the names of :

• physicians who may be interested in relocating
• students enrolled in medical school or a medical residency program
• local students with a keen interest in applying to medical school

For further information about Docs By The Bay, please visit our website or contact our Physician Recruitment and Retention Coordinator Paula Mason at pmason@docsbythebay.ca or 613-392-2540 ext. 5771.