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Township offers first-look at farmhouse meant to attract doctors

In an effort to drive recruitment, the township has provided a free place to stay for short-term residents, medical students and locum physicians

FERGUS – In a time where it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to recruit healthcare workers, the Township of Centre Wellington and Wellington Health Care Alliance (WHCA) hope offering short-term medical students, residents and locum physicians a free place to stay will help locally. 

On Wednesday, councillors, township and county staff, and the media were invited to a first-look tour of a renovated farmhouse on the edge of Fergus built in the 1870s that will accommodate up to four medical professionals at a time.

Angela Stanley, WHCA CEO and president, explained right now there is significant competition to recruit healthcare professionals as there is more work to do than people available to fill them. 

“Communities are being creative on how they’re going to incentivize people to come,” Stanley said. “One of the biggest things that we've heard from our locums, from our residents, our students is that if we can take the burden of finding a place to stay during that period of time, that is a significant help.” 

With this in mind at an April meeting, council approved using a township owned farmhouse at 965 Gartshore St. in Fergus as accommodation space for healthcare workers. The township purchased this land for its new central operations centre and included the farmhouse. A report noted the long-term use will have to be determined by council but the farmhouse could be used for this purpose while the facility is being designed.

While providing accommodations is the primary goal, Stanley noted this can help entice them to consider staying or relocating once they get a taste of the community. 

“If you can immerse them in the community and immerse them in the culture of the community, that is the biggest incentive to get them to come,” Stanley said.

Alison Armstrong, WHCA spokesperson, said this is why they’ve set up a station in the house with various brochures and information on local things to do like festivals or events to make sure those coming do more than just work.

“We’re also looking at getting bikes for the property and helmets so they can kind of go out and have some fun in the community,” Armstrong said. 

Those who toured the farmhouse, such as the mayor and councillors, appeared impressed with the work done and some remarked how they were happy to see various community members and businesses contribute to this project through sponsorship or providing houseware. 

“This makes me feel good as a councillor, making this decision to retain our doctors,” said Coun. Lisa MacDonald. 

As someone who grew up in a farmhouse, Mayor Shawn Watters said this one was well taken care of and is now a beautiful facility and an important one for Centre Wellington.

“To have a facility like this to help coax people to come to our facility, it’s just fantastic,” Watters said. “I can’t thank the community enough for their participation and making this such a beautiful place and hopefully it will provide lots of memories for healthcare practitioners as they come live in this community and realize that we really care. If it encourages more people to look at our community that way and stay long term, that’s fantastic.”

The farmhouse will be getting used quickly too. Three healthcare workers were scheduled to be the first to stay at it the following week.


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Keegan Kozolanka

About the Author: Keegan Kozolanka

Keegan Kozolanka is a general assignment reporter for EloraFergusToday, covering Wellington County. Keegan has been working with Village Media for more than two years and helped launch EloraFergusToday in 2021.
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