The Hay Group recommends more doctors' offices should work collaboratively.

Just as P.E.I. announced the hiring of seven new doctors Thursday, a group of consultants was recommending the opposite.

The newly hired doctors include three radiologists, one psychiatrist and three family doctors.

The government-hired Hay Group of consultants, however, is suggesting there should be a dramatic reduction in the number of physicians practising in P.E.I.

A $200,000 report by the Hay Group suggests 74 changes to the way doctors practise and are hired in the province.

If the provincial government follows through with the recommendations, Islanders would see significant changes in their day-to-day health care. Most notably, the report suggests there should be fewer family doctors.

The complement is now 94, and most of those positions are filled. The Hay Group says that number should drop as low as 65, based on one assumption: a fairly radical shift in how family doctors operate on the Island.

The report recommends more doctors' offices should work collaboratively.

Team approach

One example of such collaboration is the office of Dr. Robbie Coull in Charlottetown.

Coull has a staff that includes nurses, pharmacy technicians and other professionals. This team approach enabled some patients to continue coming in Thursday, for example, even though Coull was in Scotland.

"It's a very good way of providing care because the different members of the team complement each other," Coull said in a phone interview.

"I'm not particularly brilliant at giving health advice," he said. "I tend to get sidetracked into diagnosis and treatment, and so the nurses are very good at the monitoring of illnesses and health advice and support."

Though Coull said he can see more patients and provide better care in this model, he doesn't believe it should be used to cut the number of doctors.

The P.E.I. College of Family Physicians agrees.

"We're very much for working collaboratively with nurses, nurse practitioners and other allied health professionals," said president Dr. Andrew Wohlgemut. "We're not for substituting or getting rid of family physicians and replacing them with other people."

The Hay Group also recommends reducing the number of specialists on the Island and even eliminating some specialties altogether.

The report is only in draft form at this stage. The province plans to seek input from medical staff before a final report is implemented and changes are made. The document is meant to guide the province through the next five to 10 years.

Provincial Health Minister Carolyn Bertram said Thursday she'll wait for a final draft before commenting on specific recommendations, but she made one thing clear. "We are not cutting doctors' positions," she said.

Bertram said a final report could be presented to cabinet within six weeks.