There will be only one remaining family physician at the Yorston Medical Clinic in Williams Lake as of February next year.
Two physicians have confirmed they will be closing their practices by the end of December and January.
Executive Director of the Central Interior Rural Division of Family Practice (CIRD), Trevor Barnes acknowledges although it is a scary and worrying event for patients, actions are being taken to mitigate the impact.
“There is a doctor shortage in Williams Lake,” he said.
“Despite this circumstance, the Board of Directors of CIRD will be approaching the other family practice clinics in Williams to see if they can be of assistance in providing primary medical health care to patients with critical and urgent needs.”
Barnes says as of today a larger clinic was already accepting patients from Yorston.
“The recruitment of new physicians is a lengthy process. Unfortunately, these efforts will not provide any immediate relief for the patients who no longer have a family physician,” said Dr. Glenn Fedor who will solely continue his practice at the clinic.
Barnes says there has been no discussion of creating a primary care clinic as in Quesnel.
“Our situation is a little different than Quesnel,” Barnes said.
“Quesnel’s impact was that they were going to lose many more physicians or they were in the process of losing many more physicians than we are. We’re hopeful that we will able to find solutions in the long-term and we’re going to work very hard to do that.”