A new program that started recently will make it easier for some Powell River doctors to take time off while making sure the community still receives medical services.
A joint program between BC Medical Association (BCMA) and ministry of health helps fund locums for general practitioners who provide anaesthesia services for Powell River General Hospital and other rural communities. Locums are doctors who stand in temporarily for other doctors who are away.
“One of the toughest things about providing medical services in rural and remote areas is the difficulty in getting away for a break,” said Dr. Shelley Ross, BCMA president. “This new locum service will provide general practitioners the opportunity to take time off while making sure the community is not left without anaesthesia services.”
The program is an extension of the locum program for specialist anesthesiologists and gives general practitioners who provide anesthesiologist services coverage. General practitioners are now allowed to apply for up to 10 days of locum coverage each year so they can take vacations or participate in continuing medical education.
Rural communities rely on general practitioners who have taken anesthesiology training to provide hospitals with the ability to do Caesarean sections, a variety of other surgical procedures and some testing and diagnostic services.
Powell River was selected as an eligible community based on the program criteria of: having a health authority physician supply plan in place requiring this specialty service; having seven or fewer practicing general practitioners with anaesthesia training; and being more than 70 kilometres from a major medical centre where either specialists or general practitioners provide similar services.
Through the program doctors who provide locum services are guaranteed a minimum daily rate of up to $1,000 per day.
Dr. Nick White is a general practitioner who provides anaesthesia services for Powell River. He said there are only four doctors who provide anaesthesia coverage for Powell River and this program would help him. If one of the four doctors takes a leave it puts a heavier burden on the remaining doctors, he said. Each doctor takes 25 per cent of each day to be on-call for these services. In that on-call time doctors can not be more than 20 minutes away from the hospital. “I never go to Lund,” he said.
The program is part of the deal BC doctors ratified in June 2012 with the provincial government to support recruitment and retention of rural and remote doctors.
