Dan Muldoon says the key to getting family doctors to move to London, Ont., lies in a strong pitch.
Muldoon is director of London-based Thompson Medical Clinic (TMC) and a registered practical nurse, who is behind an effort that has resulted in a boom of new doctors coming to London and nearby St. Thomas.
“By September of this year, we’ll have had 21 doctors start with us since 2025,” said Muldoon.
The initiative is providing space on primary care rosters for an estimated 40,000 people.
It’s a rate of progress that, until recently, seemed unrealistic in a region where the Ontario government said early this year roughly 80,000 people were without primary care.
“It’s hard to describe. It feels like a weight off my team’s shoulders. Before, people were coming all the time, pleading for a doctor. Now, if someone asks, we can get them in within a month, if not less,” Muldoon said.
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The lack of family doctors has been a persistent issue across the province, with the problem attracting significant government attention. In January, Ontario’s health minister announced a plan to connect residents with primary care, resulting in 225,000 people being paired with doctors and health teams in its first year.
Locally, the Middlesex-London Ontario Health Team has been working to recruit doctors to the area. At the same time, clinics like TMC have been carving their own path to try to contribute to those efforts.
But none have been quite as successful as TMC â something Muldoon attributes to a change in tactics, and a focus on recruiting doctors from the United Kingdom.
According to Muldoon, the seeds for that success were sown in 2023, when the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario streamlined requirements for doctors from the U.S. and U.K. to practise in the province.
“We hadn’t had any luck with medical schools in Canada, and U.S. doctors moving here would be taking a pay cut,” said Muldoon.
“But in the U.K., doctors have no autonomy, they don’t get to choose their schedules, and their salaries are much lower. We have a very attractive medical system for them.”
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On top of having more freedom and better pay, Muldoon said the guarantee of abundant work is a big selling point for London.
“One of the biggest fears for people coming across now is that there are a lot of communities that are oversaturated,” Muldoon said.
Goderich, Ont., for instance, celebrated having a whopping 28 doctors in a community of roughly 8,000 people in 2019, while the average doctor in Ontario has a roster of roughly 2,000 patients.
Muldoon said almost every newly recruited doctor is from the U.K. Some of them have also called other countries home, something Muldoon said is a bonus in a multicultural city like London.
“[We have doctors from] Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, India, Pakistan,” Muldoon said, to name a few.
Dr. Omar Elsalakawy is originally from Egypt, and had been practising in the U.K. for four years when approached by Muldoon.
“It’s not very easy to take that step, a complete change of life, especially when you have a family,” Elsalakawy said.
“However, the need for doctors here in Canada was a drive for me to choose this. London as a city is pretty good for a family, too, so it made us courageous.”
Three months after his move, Elsalakawy said London is shaping up to be an “amazing city,” that he’s loving so far.
Coming to a community in need has also been fulfilling on its own, he said, but it was an adjustment coming from a country in which doctors are in ample supply.
“It was a bit strange for me in the beginning, but later on, after understanding the need [for] doctors here, I started understanding that patients really appreciate me coming from the U.K.,” Elsalakawy said.
“You want me as a doctor, and I am happy to provide my services.”
With more doctors now signed and efforts to find more still underway, Muldoon describes the new problem that’s cropped up as one that’s probably easier to manage.
“My biggest hurdle now is getting patients,” Muldoon said. “People still have the faux pas, like, ‘I’m never going to find a doctor, so I just don’t look.'”
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With few Ontarians accessing Health Care Connect, the province’s official waitlist to pair people with primary care, Muldoon said TMC has been working hard to advertise the influx of physicians.
We get approximately 100 applicants every single day between all three locations. That’s a good climb at the moment,” Muldoon said.
“I think London will be one of those communities that smashes the province’s goal [to match everyone with primary care] way before 2029.”
