Our future not tied directly to locum house

Letter to the Editor,
In last weeks’ paper, an article about the locum house project states…“Singleton said that he and his wife, Laura, are willing to commit to at least staying in Rainy River for another five years if Rainy River House works.”
We would like to clear up the misunderstanding. What David said was that we tend to work in five-year plans. Nevertheless, our plans are always subject to change according to the needs and wishes of the whole family, and also to changing circumstances. We wouldn’t want the community to believe our future here is tied directly in any way to the locum house project.
However, we do firmly believe this project is the best thing local communities could do to maintain the exceptionally good access to health care that exists here. We think it will make a big difference in our ability to compete with other communities for locum services, which are certainly in short supply. We also think that the proposed duplex will offer a lot of important benefits to recruitment and retention for the money it will cost, if it’s executed well and backed up with a well-organized welcoming/hosting strategy. The town and the area have much to offer, but those things are not obvious at first glance. If residents want doctors to come, and to stay, they need to ask: “What image of ourselves are we presenting?” And “Have we taken the trouble to show them what we have to offer?”
Although lots of communities are doing things to attract doctors, there is still plenty of room for Rainy River to be a leader, and we think we can show this community how.
As for our future here, there is no question that adequate access to relief for time off will be a concern as we go forward, both for ourselves and because and we want to see the area continue to receive uninterrupted care. But before we consider when or even whether we will go, we’d like to help the Rainy River area position itself as well as it can for its medical future.
–Laura Singleton