MOUNT FOREST – Councillor Steve McCabe presented a $10,000 cheque from the Township of Wellington North to North Wellington Health Care on May 31.
The money is an annual grant, part of the township’s Grants and Donations Community Development Program, which is allotting $44,564 to 31 local non-profits and community groups this year.
The funds are kept for the North Wellington Health Care Recruitment committee and could be used for everything from recruitment advertising to furnishing housing for students doing their clinical placements here.
Mount Forest Family Health Team executive director Suzanne Trivers, who chairs the recruitment committee, stated in an email she’s “grateful for the community members who continue to take part in the planning and problem solving we face to attract and retain health care providers in our community.”
The health team and the northern hospital group share a team of seven doctors.
Trivers said health care budgets don’t include dollars for enticing more doctors and other health care professionals to come live and work in Mount Forest.
It’s one of the area’s biggest challenges, Trivers said, and one the township’s grant dollars can help to address.
McCabe said the contribution “goes a long way” in promoting the township as the place to be for healthcare professionals.
With a growing community, recruitment is more vital than ever to ensuring residents have access to needed care, he added.
