Williams Lake City Council Asks Province of BC for Additional Physicians

Courtesy of the City of Williams Lake:

To bring attention to the critical shortage of health care professionals in the community, City of Williams Lake Council has requested a meeting with the Minister of Health during the Union of British Columbia Municipalities AGM and Convention in early September, with plans also underway to meet with Interior Health.

City staff have been working with the Central Interior Division of Family Practice (CIRD) to support new physicians as they arrive in the community; however, physician recruitment is a complex long-term process that has not been made easier by a complicated mix of funding, contracts and fee for service models in different areas of the province.

“We want to add Williams Lake’s voice to the calls from around the province that emphasize that the efforts of Interior Health and the provincial government are simply not getting us where we need to be,” says Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb. “CIRD works tirelessly on recruiting straight from medical school, internationally, and interprovincially and although we have seen a number of new physicians come to Williams Lake in recent months, it is simply not enough to keep up with the demand.”

Williams Lake City Councillor Scott Nelson continues, “We would like to hear from the Province on how it proposes to address this critical shortage so that Williams Lake is not placed at a disadvantage for physician recruitment. We are already facing an uphill battle in securing physicians for this region and are essentially competing with other communities for the limited number of professionals available in this province. As well, the Province needs to help with concrete ways to increase the number of seats for medical students in BC universities. There must be a more collaborative approach that we can take provincially to address these shortfalls.”

The City continues to work with the Cariboo Regional District to implement the recommendations from the 2020 Labour Market Study, with a new website geared to attracting professionals to the community planned to be launched in late fall.

“With housing a key component in retention of medical professionals, we are hopeful that the Boitanio Mall project will add some good options to make that transition into the community easier,” says Economic Development Officer Beth Veenkamp. “This, combined with some innovative approaches like setting up a system through www.caribooattachment.ca to match medical practitioners with patients is helping, but with our bustling community even these systems are easily overwhelmed with demand.”