For Licensed Physicians interested in Northern Ontario

There are a number of tools available to assist with planning for locum coverage.

• Health Force Ontario Resources for Family Medicine Locums in Rural and Northern Communities
• Health Force Ontario Providing Locum Coverage
• AMC joule Locum Evaluation Checklist

These three sites have information about work opportunities in Northern Ontario. You can search by community and by region.

• The Health Force Ontario (HFO) portal lists many work opportunities for physicians. Sign in is required.
• A selection of jobs in the communities of Northern Ontario can be viewed on this site: JobConnect.health. No sign in is required.
• A summary of permanent and locum work for family physicians in Northern Ontario can be viewed in this PDF (last update: October 2023).

Recruitment and retention to Northern and Rural sites:

• The Northern and Rural Recruitment and Retention Initiative (NRRRI):The objective of  the NRRRI is to attract physicians to establish a full-time practice in eligible underserviced communities.
• The NRRRI offers taxable financial recruitment incentives to each eligible physician who establishes a full-time practice in an eligible communityof the province. The grants range between $84,718 and $124,730 paid over a four-year period. The financial recruitment incentives will be awarded based on eligibility criteria and considerations related to total NRRRI budget allocations.
• Retention beyond 4 years:  The Northern Physician Retention Initiative (NPRI) was established as an initiative under the 2000 Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Framework Agreement to enable eligible physicians in northern Ontario to receive the equivalent of a $7,460.95 retention incentive paid at the end of each fiscal year in which they continue to practice full-time in northern Ontario.

Working in ER can be daunting, but the ED Peer-to-Peer real time support is available 24/7 to any Ontario ED now through Ontario Health.  Learn more about it here: https://www.ontariohealth.ca/providing-health-care/clinical-resources-education/emergency-peer-program or through this QR code here.

Virtual critical care services support physicians rural ER’s to manage their most critically ill and injured patients.  Through connecting by video conference to the ICU physician on call in the regional referral centre, as well as the air transportation base hospital physician, physicians can optimize care and transportation of their patients.

There are two virtual critical care supports in Northern Ontario:

1. Regional Critical Care Responseis based in Thunder Bay and serving the hospitals and nursing stations of NW Ontario
2. Virtual Critical Care is based at Health Sciences North in Thunder Bay and serves the Northeast.