By Cecilia Nasmith

Though the $17,100 the West Northumberland Physician Recruitment Committee is asking from Cobourg is up slightly from last year, Deputy Mayor Suzanne Seguin said at Monday's council meeting that they are doing a wonderful job for the community.

One of their most recent accomplishments was getting the replacement for retiring physician Mark Essak.

Mayor John Henderson said the community had been well served for many years by Dr. Essak – a former Northumberland Hills Hospital chief of staff as well as a family physician.

Seguin said that the committee is pleased to announce Dr. Marcus Cunningham has taken over Dr. Essak's practice, and they are working on another three prospects. This is good to hear, she said, because not only are there still a great many people without family physicians, but there are also some patients who previously had a family physician who may no longer have one once that doctor is replaced.

Younger doctors seem averse to assuming the entirety of the prodigious patient rosters retiring physicians have been managing, Seguin explained, so more than one new physician may have to be recruited to cover the practice of one retiring physician.

“It's a trend that is happening,” she said.
The letter from director of physician recruitment Maria Gomez added that 30% of West Northumberland physicians are over the age of 60, and 55% of them are over the age of 55.

“Six family physicians are currently planning their retirements, and we are anticipating the rate of retirements will continue over the foreseeable future,” Gomez predicted.

The committee's request was referred to the upcoming budget deliberations.