Physiotherapists are in short supply in northern communities.

• Author: Krejlgaard, Chris

The shortage of health-care professionals in some Northern Ontario communities is especially acute in specialized fields such as physiotherapy.

The shortage is being felt the most in the northern reaches of the region where the health-care professional is flown into the community once or twice per month, according to Hugh Drouin, health coordinator for the Ministry of Health's Northern Health Office in Thunder Bay.

However, even road-accessed communities such as Red Lake are having trouble attracting specialists. Red Lake has one part-time physiotherapist, but two full-time ones are required.

"Within the hospital we could employ two full-time physiotherapists. That's what we budgeted for if we could attract them to the community," says Hal Fjeldsted, the administrator of the Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital.

Fjeldsted says the additional physiotherapist would allow the hospital to offer outreach programs in such communities as Ear Falls.

While there is no shortage in Sudbury, James Busch, co-owner of the Sudbury Orthopedic and Sports Physiotherapy Clinic, confirms that it is difficult to attract physiotherapists to Northern Ontario.

"Part of it is the climate, and some of it is ignorance of the north and what the north has to offer," he explains.

However, Busch agrees with many other health-care officials that the main reason for the shortage concerns education. Enrolment is limited at the five Ontario universities which offer degree programs in physiotherapy.

Fjeldsted believes that expanding the programs would make it easier to recruit physiotherapists, but he points out that there are no guarantees that the graduates...