PEIHealth P.E.I. says it has increased its physician workforce by 10 per cent over the past two years, with the total number of doctors across all specialties up from 292 to 320. Melanie Fraser says province’s increase in number of doctors leads the countryBrittany Spencer · CBC News · Posted: Oct 09, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoAccording to Health P.E.I., the number of family physicians practising on the Island increased from 101 in 2023 to 110 as of Oct. 1 this year. (David Donnelly/CBC)Health P.E.I. says it has increased its physician workforce by 10 per cent over the past two years, with the total number of doctors across all specialties up from 292 to 320. That’s according to Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser, who spoke to a legislative standing committee Wednesday about physician recruitment and retention. Fraser provided an update on the agency’s efforts to bring more doctors and health-care workers to the Island.“When I arrived here 18 months ago it was clear that this health system was pretty fragile and there were lots of vacancies,” she told MLAs on the committee. “While I agree progress will never be as fast as we would like, when we look at… the Canadian Institute for Health Information [data], we are actually leading the country in our increase in family physicians and our retention of family physicians.”Health P.E.I. CEO Melanie Fraser says the province has hired 28 new physicians and has connected 6,500 Islanders with a primary care provider since January. (Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.)According to Health P.E.I., the number of family physicians practising on the Island increased from 101 in 2023 to 110 as of Oct. 1 this year. Fraser said there are also a number of active offers out to potential hires, so she hopes to update those numbers later this week. “We are getting more per capita than any other jurisdiction in Canada and we’re doing that by leveraging those systematic improvements in place, and our compensation,” she said. Since January, Fraser said the province has hired 28 new physicians and has connected 6,500 Islanders with a primary care provider. Workforce of nurse practitioners growing Fraser said the province’s roster of nurse practitioners has grown by 28 per cent since 2023, with 14 new hires since last June. “Nurse practitioners are very highly trained professionals, they’re key providers in all aspects of health care,” she said. “They are part of our emergency departments, they work in our ICUs, they work in our primary care teams and we’re going to continue to recruit.” About 60 per cent of P.E.I.’s nurse practitioners work in primary care settings, she added. Fraser said Health P.E.I. has also made progress with hiring physician assistants. She said there are five currently working on the Island, with four more waiting to be licensed to start working. “We have taken a very aggressive approach to hiring front-line staff to stabilize health services across the province,” she said.That applies to every health-care role, from nurses and office administrators to physiotherapists to cooks, she added. Overall, the workforce at Health P.E.I. as a whole has also grown. According to data Fraser provided to the committee, the agency has grown by more than 13 per cent since 2023.Relationship with medical societyAfter the presentation, Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane pointed to concerns around Health P.E.I.’s ongoing relationship with the Medical Society of P.E.I. Earlier this year, the society entered mediation with the Department of Health and Wellness and Health P.E.I. over new operational guidelines for how many patients family doctors can and should handle. The society has said it was “stonewalled” from consultations around the new targets. Among Health P.E.I.’s new key performance indicators, or KPIs, was the requirement that each family doctor should see 24 patients a day, based on an average appointment being 15 minutes.P.E.I. Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane questioned Fraser during Wednesday’s committee meeting about the province’s relationship with the medical society. (CBC)“We’ve heard very publicly from the family physician community,” MacFarlane said. “They will not stay in the environment if these KPIs are introduced.“That’s the action and strategy that seems to have had a really negative effect on our provincial reputation, also on the perspectives of our medical residents and our physicians.”Fraser said Health P.E.I. has agreed not to disclose any details about what’s discussed during the mediation meetings with the medical society. “We are and always have been working with MSPEI and we continue to have those conversations,” she said. “We are in mediation with them and the conversations have been productive and we’ve agreed to have more conversations and I’m confident that we will resolve those.” We don’t want to throw things at the wall just to see what sticks, we want to make sure we’re getting value for our money in health-care recruitment.- Dominick Desjardins, Health P.E.I.One specialty P.E.I. hasn’t been able to recruit for is psychology, which is the only category of physician that’s seen a drop in its workforce year after year. Dominick Desjardins, Health P.E.I.’s director of workforce recruitment, said that’s largely because psychologists are in very high demand across the country. “There’s a lot of competition from health authorities across the country from hospitals to private clinics,” Desjardins said after the committee meeting. “We do provide a competitive lifestyle for all health-care professionals on P.E.I., so we continue to hammerhead on those topics in order to lure in these amazing practitioners.” WATCH | What does it take to convince a health-care professional to move to P.E.I.? :What does it take to convince a health-care professional to move to P.E.I.?Health P.E.I. says it has improved the way it recruits doctors and other health-care professionals to come and work in this province. CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin sat down with the agency’s director of workforce recruitment, Dominick Desjardins, to find out what goes into enticing people to the Island. Desjardins said Health P.E.I. is using more modern marketing practices to reach potential new hires from across Canada and internationally. This includes using data analysis to target marketing efforts to specific communities, schools and facilities. “We don’t want to throw things at the wall just to see what sticks, we want to make sure we’re getting value for our money in health-care recruitment,” he said. In the meantime, while psychology positions remain difficult to fill, Fraser said Health P.E.I. is leaning on things like virtual care and hiring locums for short time periods to supplement Islanders’ access to care. How will P.E.I. stay competitive? Fraser said the Island will have to continue competing for health-care staff with other provinces for at least the next decade, so every strategy Health P.E.I. explores is critical.Canada is short about 23,000 physicians, she said, and only about 1,300 new doctors graduate from medical schools each year. One of the biggest changes to recruitment over the last 18 months has been streamlining the hiring process, Fraser said. “We’ve been able to cut our hiring process from 49 steps down to 11,” she said, calling the change a significant improvement.She said the remaining 11 steps are crucial and include proper licensing procedures and qualification checks. The team also goes to more than 70 recruitment events each year, looking to acquire staff from out of province who may want to practice on P.E.I. Fraser said Health P.E.I. also updated its compensation and benefits packages in hopes of becoming more attractive to potential hires. The benefits include six weeks of vacation, paid parental leave and time off, and funding for continuing medical education.ABOUT THE AUTHORBrittany Spencer is a multi-platform reporter and producer with CBC Prince Edward Island. She’s covered politics, health care and the justice system. She’s a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s journalism program and joined CBC in 2017. You can reach her at brittany.spencer@cbc.caWith files from Gwyneth Egan
Health P.E.I. taking ‘very aggressive approach’ to recruiting more staff, CEO tells committee
