Port Hardy-area residents will be among the beneficiaries as 14 internationally trained doctors are fanning out across British Columbia as part of a program to provide better primary health care in rural areas.
A statement from the Ministry of Health on Wednesday said all 14 doctors will work as family physicians in a total of 11 communities, and each has pledged to remain in the same community for at least three years.
Single physicians will set up practices in Dawson Creek, McBride, Terrace, Quesnel, Hazelton, Invermere, Castlegar and Powell River. Fort St. John, Lillooet and Port Hardy will each welcome two doctors.
The 14 represent the first group to take part in the $2.8-million Practice Ready Assessment pilot program, where doctors trained outside Canada spend three months with a B.C. physician who evaluates their skills.
A second group of 16 doctors is slated to begin the program this fall.
The program, a partnership among the Ministry of Health, Doctors of B.C., regional health authorities, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. and the University of British Columbia, is part of the province’s strategy to improve access to primary health care, including family doctors.
Statistics Canada’s 2013 Canadian Community Health Survey reported an estimated 15.6 per cent of British Columbians were without a family doctor. Doctors of B.C. estimates that about four per cent of British Columbians — about 200,000 people — are currently looking for a family doctor.
— With files from the Times Colonist
