To avoid orphaning her 1,600 patients, Dr Barbara Watts is offering potential replacements a deal on her Caledon, Ontario, home and office |
How far will a doctor go to make sure her patients don't end up orphans?
Providing her successor with a home and a ready-made practice isn't too much for Caledon, ON, family doctor Barbara Watts.
She'll give any FP willing to take over her practice a $10,000 discount on the $650,000 asking price of her house, which includes a fully-equipped practice. With as many as 1 million Ontarians living without a family doctor, Dr Watts knew she had to take extreme action in order to protect her 1,600 rostered patients when she quits solo practice later this year.
"I know it's just a gimmick, because what is $10,000 out of $650,000?" says Dr Watts. "But I intend to do it — I'm sincere about my desire to have someone look after my patients. I would feel bad if I had to abandon my practice, but I can't stay here forever."
Dr Watts has been in solo practice for 25 years and now plans to do emergency and hospitalist work and locums most of the year. She and her husband will spend the rest of their time living on a boat in the Caribbean. "I'm fed up with winter," she explains.
The house, on a 2.6-acre lot in the quiet but underserviced town of Caledon, 40 minutes from downtown Toronto — the safest city in Canada, according to Maclean's — is 5,200 square feet. The office includes a reception area, nursing station, private office and two exam rooms, and all the office equipment, computers and furniture. Dr Watts says the practice generates $380,000 per year and leaves her time to do on-call and emerg shifts at the hospital in nearby Orangeville one day a week as well.
Her doctors-only discount is unprecedented, as far as Dr Watts can tell ("It just came out of my head"), but it doesn't surprise Canadian physician recruiting experts. "It's a seller's market," says Susan Craig about MDs' leverage in today's job market. As physician supply and demand fall farther out of balance in the coming years, Ms Craig, the president of the international physician recruiting firm Susan Craig Associates, predicts we'll see more and more of these "tailored" approaches. Ski passes and golf club memberships are proving popular.
Real estate, however, has emerged as the most important target for recruiters' incentives, says Wayne Heide, chair of the Canadian Association for Staff Physician Recruiters. "Sometimes when you recruit someone new, you're bringing in people who don't know the community at all, so housing is a big issue."
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