Overview
- Locums can earn up to $18,500 for a one-week hospitalist shift in Timmins, $2,700 per eight-hour emergency shift in North Bay and $250 per hour in Little Current.
- The province’s Rural Emergency Medicine Coverage Investment Fund replaced the Temporary Locum Program in April to help rural hospitals secure locums and bolster recruitment of permanent staff.
- Several hospitals are tapping operating budgets and funds from unfilled positions to top up provincial payments and compete for a small pool of traveling physicians.
- Experts caution that reliance on generous locum incentives could undercut long-term recruitment and retention of full-time doctors in underserved areas.
- Ontario Medical Association data shows over 350 physician vacancies in northern communities and predicts nearly half of rural doctors will retire within five years.