By Ian Holmes

Focus on Nanaimo family doctor shortage reaping rewards

Mar 16, 2017 | 2:00 PM

NANAIMO — While there’s no magical cure for solving Nanaimo’s family doctor shortage, healthcare professionals are reporting progress.

The Nanaimo Division of Family Practice (NDFP) was established in 2011, in part to help recruit doctors, at a time when the agency estimated 11,000 people in the Nanaimo area did not have a family physician.

Dr. Melissa Oberholster, chair of the NDFP, said there isn’t updated data on how many people in the harbour city are without a doctor today, but 35 family physicians have been recruited to Nanaimo since 2014.

“We have prevented a lot of patients who would have otherwise lost their family doctors through their doctors retiring, we have prevented them from being unattached,” Oberholster told NanaimoNewsNOW.

She said 8,700 patients in Nanaimo who lost their family doctor were able to find another one since 2011.

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Oberholster said nine Nanaimo family doctors retired since 2014, which is significant since veteran physicians have a large roster of patients.

“It takes approximately two physicians to replace one retiring physician. On-going recruitment efforts are incredibly important and that’s why we as the Division feel this is a program that we will continue to invest in.”

Oberholster, a family doctor herself at Townsite Medical Clinic, said their organization focused on much more than showing a prospective new doctor to the community the professional side of the job.

“When a physician arrives, the focus isn’t just on saying ‘this is a place where you can practice medicine, here’s an office, but this is a place where you can raise a family, this is a place where you can settle down roots’ and that I think has been the biggest difference.”

Island Health interim manager of physician recruitment and retention Eva Vincent said there are currently 68 family doctor vacancies on Vancouver Island and 16 openings in the Nanaimo, Parksville-Qualicum Beach regions.

She said new doctors put more stock in what is the best fit for their personal lives and career goals compared to years past. Vincent said Island Health works closely with multiple community partners to help recruit family doctors.

“New grads are also looking to be a little more mobile,” Vincent said. “We see new grads wanting to locum more (temporary work) before choosing a community.”

ian.holmes@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @reporterholmes