Two new family physicians will be setting up practice this fall in Quesnel as Northern Health continues recruitment efforts.
Chief Operating Officer Michael McMillan calls it positive news.
“One will be coming through the Practice Ready Assessment Program-that’s a new initiative from the province of BC, and the other physician will be coming to the community to work in the emergency department full-time, so there’s been a success in the sort of external recruiting.”
“In addition to that, my understanding is that we have two other physicians through the readiness assessment process in the fall of 2015 that will be ready for practice in February of 2016.”
McMillan says as happy as Northern Health is with this success, they need to continue to recruit, retain the current physicians, and work hard with the community to attract even more physicians.
He says although two new family physicians won’t be setting up practice until October, departing physicians gave plenty of notice which should not disrupt emergency room hours over the summer.
“So we’ve been able to work hard. Is it going to be easy over the summer until we get these two additional physicians and hopefully even more in place?”
“No. It won’t be, but I’m pretty confident that we’ll be actually continuing to provide the services that we need to.”
“I know the physicians in the community and in particular the medical leadership have done everything they can to make sure medical services continue.”
4 family physicians have said they will be leaving this year, with another 3 next year.
MacMillan says a primary clinic meanwhile which was part of a recruitment program launched last month is in the process of having a site located with an opening target end of summer-early fall.