The Northern Interior Rural Division of Family Practice (NIRDFP) is coming up with a new recruiting program to attract more nurses, physicians and other health care practitioners to northern rural and First Nations communities.
Recruitment Lead of NIRDFP Joy Davy wrote a letter to the Village of 亚洲天堂 Lake indicating recruitment for physicians and nurse practitioners is becoming more difficult as the pool of candidates becomes smaller.
The newly hired physicians and healthcare professionals can get personalized support from NIRDFP鈥檚 recruitment program, including city tours, relocation, planning, and house-hunting assistance. Also, enrollment assistance for childcare, schools, getting settled into the community and making connections and furnished apartments for short-term stays.
Davy believes these facilities would encourage new recruits to stay longer than their usual three years of contract.
All these services within the new program can enhance the recruitment process in Northern B.C., unfortunately 亚洲天堂 Lake is not qualified.
Executive Director of NIRDFP Errol Winter added 亚洲天堂 Lake does not qualify simply because of the size of the community and the number of physicians it has.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a program to help with funding when locums [temporary doctors or nurses] came up there. We found that there鈥檚 no support and doctors are getting paid a lot less. The expenses are a lot greater for them as well.鈥�
Unless changes are being made it would be difficult for the recruitment process.
鈥淚 think the problem we鈥檙e facing right now is just plain math for this situation,鈥� he said.
亚洲天堂 Lake Councillor Kevin White recommended that locum numbers [rates charged for service] be put on the patients instead of the doctors and physicians themselves to retain them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just an idea and thoughts inside my head for a while. The physician has issued a number when he comes to B.C., thus he gets his bill paid through.鈥�
鈥淲hen the doctor sees me, and he puts his time in and he gets paid from the government on that number and when he moves, that number moves away with him.鈥�
鈥淪o my thought is, if you put the number on the seat, instead on the physician; we may have five seats in 亚洲天堂 Lake that are being paid, it wouldn鈥檛 be quite as easy for them to move out of the province or out of the area.鈥�
鈥淚t would help retain doctors because they can take their number and move south, as long as they can find that patient, they can get paid.鈥�
Davy pointed out that it is a provincial problem that needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Health.
Although 亚洲天堂 Lake might not be ideal for locums, NIRDFP is still willing to set up a recruitment committee to help organize and fund an administrative person for two days a month.
Council believes this is an excellent proposition although they have not made any decision yet.
