The Algonquin Family Health Team largely has managed to avert staffing shortages and turmoil caused by a steep wage gap in the community health sector – so far.
Chief Executive Officer Janine van den Heuvel attributes the Huntsville-based team’s stability to a veteran workforce willing to live with lower wages in exchange for great job satisfaction and work-life balance.
“We’ve been lucky,” she says. “We don’t experience a lot of turnover, mainly because our team is so tightknit. A lot of our team members have been in these jobs for a very long time. At this point in their careers, and considering how dedicated they are to these roles, they are sticking it out despite the wage gaps.”
The team provides comprehensive primary care services to a roster of nearly 30,000 patients across Muskoka, in addition to a clinic for patients who have no family doctor or nurse practitioner. The team includes six nurse practitioners, four social workers and nurses, dietitians and respiratory therapists. All primary care physicians in the catchment area – nearly 30 – are also attached to the health team and provide support.
A recent survey by 10 provincial associations representing Ontario’s community health sector associations found that 94 per cent of community health organizations identify compensation as the biggest challenge with hiring and keeping staff. Workers in the community health sector commonly earn about 30 per cent less than they’d make in the same roles at hospitals, school boards and other publicly funded organizations.
In addition to competition from other publicly funded employers, a growing number of nurse practitioners and social workers are choosing to enter private practice where compensation can be significantly higher.
While the Algonquin Family Health Team has been able to navigate the wage gap to date, van den Heuvel is worried it will be more difficult to fill vacancies as members of her team retire.
“I’m finding the pressure is on the recruitment side,” van den Heuvel says. “It really is a matter of finding the right person who can, quite frankly, take a 30-per-cent wage hit to be in these positions.”
Noting the provincial government’s recent commitment to connect every Ontarian to a primary care provider by 2029, van den Heuvel says it will be important for the government to move quickly to eliminate wage disparities in the community health sector.
“You can’t ask us to take on a greater role and not increase our wages,” she says. “Primary care workers love what they do. They want to be working in primary care. I think everyone’s just happy that the value of primary care is finally being recognized, but you also have to recognize it monetarily.”
