AMHERST, N.S. — The Community Credit Union of Cumberland County has joined the growing grassroots effort to recruit physicians and specialists to the area.
Credit union president and CEO Darrell Kuhn and board chairman Howard Welsh committed $5,000 to the community-based Cumberland Physician Recruitment Committee on April 18 while also issuing a challenge to other county-based businesses to join the effort that has already seen results with five new physicians having already started working here and another two coming later this year.
“The Community Credit Union of Cumberland County has shown vision and leadership in supporting physician recruitment for Cumberland. It has recognized the critical role of the community in this endeavour and it has also recognized that in terms of bang for your buck the investment of the business community in physician recruitment and retention has great potential,” Dr. Janneke Gradstein said in accepting the commitment along with committee member Bruce Saunders. “Success does attract success, both for health care, for business and the community as a whole.”
The committee, that includes representatives from Amherst, Oxford and the Municipality of Cumberland and members of the medical staff association, came together last year in an effort to alleviate some of the stress on medical services at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre, the area’s three collaborative emergency centres and by physicians and specialists.
It was funded by Amherst and Oxford.
Gradstein said the effort has already paid dividends in the new physicians, but also in other ways through improved morale among the medical community and faith in the health-care system.
“Last year, I heard doom and gloom from my patients, my friends and my neighbours. This year, I hear hope and excitement,” the veteran physician said. “It has also improved morale among Cumberland medical staff. Physicians, who last year, were concerned their services may collapse because they were stretched too thin, are now proud to work here and plan to stay.”
Howard Welsh, chair of the Cumberland credit union’s board of directors, said it makes sense for the organization to support something so important to the community as well as to its staff and members.
Welsh said investing in systemic change is at the core of its corporate social responsibility committee and that includes helping tackle important community issues.
“As the provision of quality health care is so important to our communities, supporting local efforts in the physician recruitment process is important to our staff, our members and the community at large,” Welsh said. “We would encourage other businesses and industries throughout Cumberland County to step forward and invest in quality health care as part of their corporate social responsibility activities.”
Gradstein said the funding from the credit union will assist with recruitment fairs members of her committee attend. It’s from those fairs and other efforts the new physicians and specialists were recruited while connections were made with other potential recruits.
She said despite the success, there’s more work to be done.
“Some positions remain unfulfilled, especially in family practice and psychiatry. We also have a large older physician population and we can anticipate that we’ll be seeing many retirements over the next few years.”
The committee is accounting for this in its recruitment efforts and is also working to support physicians already here and those who have come from afar that require family or cultural support.
The organization has also supported the Lions Park with $100,000 while it also provided $200,000 to the development of the Community Credit Union Business Innovation Centre in the former town hall building on Ratchford Street.
