Lack of space for larger, patient-centred practices slowing down doctor recruitment on P.E.I.

Recruiting doctors to Prince Edward Island is progressing slowly due to the need for larger, patient-centred practices called medical homes, said Health PEI's acting CEO.

"You know, we're moving forward slowly, I think the big change here is us moving towards the concept of medical homes and medical communities where we want to bring doctors into these larger practices, where we have a number of different health-care professionals," Dr. Michael Gardam told CBC News: Compass hostLouise Martin.

"So we are looking for doctors right now. It's going to take us a while to build up these medical homes."

Gardam said the process of building medical homes will take time because there are not a lot of spaces to lease on P.E.I.

Despite the lengthy process, medical homes are the best option for health care, he said.

"I am very encouraged about the medical homes because clearly that's the model that I think we should be following here."

Medical homes would lessen the need for walk-in clinics, Gardam said.

"I mean, ideally, we'd like to have such a well-functioning system that nobody ever needs to go to a walk-in clinic. That's sort of the vision that we want to get to with our medical homes. But it's going to take us a few years to get there."

Bureaucratic rules slow down the recruitment process, he said.

"If we want to buy new computers, we go through a different branch of government. If we want to find space, we go through a different branch of government. If we want to spend more than $100,000 of money that's in our budget, we have to go to the Treasury Board. These are rules. These are things that were identified a long time ago."

More from CBC P.E.I.