COCHRANE - A doctor is considering calling Cochrane their new home.
Last month, the municipalities of Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and Matheson teamed up to create Frontier Spirit Physician Recruitment, a not-for-profit corporation established in hopes of helping recruit physicians to the north.
The candidate was found by the not-for-profit’s physician recruiter, Abigail Tremblay, who started on Feb. 12.
“We received a physician candidate through our physician recruiter who got going about a month-and-a-half ago, she’s doing a terrific job,” Mayor Peter Politis said during the March 12 Cochrane council meeting.
“We toured that candidate around the community yesterday. I'm very proud because this reminds me just how beautiful of a community we have and what we really have to offer.”
Politis said they’ll find out more over the next few days, but there’s nothing else they could do from a monetary standpoint.
“It’s very significant from a community of our size,” he said.
"But the opportunities that we're providing here as well for the doctor to not only be part of a growing municipality and be part of the hospital and what we're doing here and be part of the family health team."
SEE: Highway 11 municipalities team up for doctor recruitment
The not-for-profit recruitment group consists of several people, including representatives from each of the three municipalities, a representative from two family health teams, as well as three skills-based individuals.
Politis said the three municipalities are meeting this week to advance Frontier Spirit Physician Recruitment.
Prior to its launch, the three municipalities were working together on the Worker Bees project for doctor recruitment.
In September, Politis told council that qualifying for funding was important for the initiative, along with putting together a skills-based board.
Other Highway 11-area municipalities are also working on physician recruitment.
The Kirkland and District Family Health Team, Blanche River Health and the Blanche River Health Foundation are working on strategies to recruit doctors to the Kirkland Lake and Englehart areas.
