B.C.’s family doctor of the year learned to love the snowy winters of tiny Fort St. James after coming to Canada from his native South Africa.
“You know, I think it grows on you,” said Dr. Anthon Meyer, who will be honoured later this month in Toronto along with nine other doctors from across Canada. He first came to Canada in 1999, working in northern Manitoba and Ontario before moving to Fort St. James three years ago.
“As time goes by you get used to it, and you really look toward to the winter, you start skiing. It’s a wonderful lifestyle-recreational community.”
Also along the way, Meyer fell in love with the community and made it his family’s home.
The College of Family Physicians of Canada this year singled out Meyer for his work in establishing a primary care society, involving both the community and health care professionals, to get consistent care to remote rural and First Nations patients.
Fort St. James had one doctor when Meyer came; now there are six physicians and two nurse practitioners.
“I’ve spent all of my career in rural, under-serviced areas, so that’s where my passion lies,” said Meyer, who practised rural medicine as a doctor in South Africa, and saw similarities between the native populations in the two countries.
“Coming to Canada, I met a First Nations population that is disadvantaged, that has got tremendous issues in terms of social determinants of health. That’s where I find connection.”
He recalled working in a northern Ontario community where 400-plus people lived without running water, and which previously had a suicide rate among pre-teen children that was the highest in the world.
In Fort St. James, Meyer is medical director of the Fort St. James Medical Clinic, and practises family medicine and emergency care with Stuart Lake General Hospital.
He launched a chronic disease management program and a medical student mentor program, and got the town’s small hospital approved as a residency training site. As a result, doctors are staying in the town, rather than seeing it as a stepping stone to a big-city career.
“Physicians can see outcome changes in the community, the patients are dealt with differently than before.”
The doctors use video conferencing and other tools to maintain more consistent contact with remote settlements.
“All of this is extremely exciting ... to not only deal with the medicine in front of me but with the person behind that — what can we do to uplift people, change the behaviour patterns, change revolving-door mentality, and build trust relationships.”
The 52-year-old Meyer’s 30-year-old daughter is also a physician and colleague, as is her husband. Meyer said the family will welcome his first grandchild in two months.
“Fort St. James is now my home. I can tell you it has touched my heart as well,” he said. He just extended his contract for another five years, and said he expects to stay longer.
Plans are in the works for a new hospital. “The whole outlook has changed — we have a recent colleague who signed on, who came from Nanaimo. He’s here for the next 15 years. It’s a long-term retention model, with a sustainable service.”
