The unexpected closure of an after-hours medical clinic in Rothesay has one prominent local doctor worried about the effect it will have on the Saint John Regional Hospital's understaffed emergency department.

Dr. David Iles, the past president of the Saint John Medical Society, said many of the patients who would have gone to the clinic will now find their way to the overburdened emergency department at the Saint John hospital.

"If you get more patients, then the waits just get longer and longer and there's more consequences and more possibility, or probability, that something might happen while you're waiting," Iles said.

The Saint John hospital's emergency room only has eight doctors when it should have 22.

The shortage in emergency room doctors in Saint John forced the Sussex Health Centre's ER to close for one weekend in April. The larger Saint John hospital, which is a level one trauma centre, needed the Sussex doctor to fill a staffing gap.

Emergency room doctors usually staff medical clinics during their off-hours.

So Iles said the doctor shortage at the hospital means that emergency room doctors don't have time to work in a clinic, which may have contributed to the Rothesay clinic's closure.

The added pressure on the Saint John emergency room comes after New Brunswick doctors launched a campaign Thursday night to let the public know that the province has a poor reputation among Canada's physicians, and that's hampering recruitment efforts.

The Saint John Medical Society held a public town hall meeting at Saint John High School Thursday night to kick off the public awareness campaign. About 150 people attended.