A joint pilot program is bringing one new family doctor to Powell River.
The Practice Ready Assessment British Columbia (PRA-BC) pilot program has recently licensed 14 family doctors to practice medicine in BC—one of whom will be arriving in Powell River this September.
“All of these physicians have signed on…to take on employment in some of BC’s most vulnerable and difficult to recruit to rural communities,” said Dr. Alan Ruddiman, co-chair of the pilot program’s joint services committee, who coordinated work between Doctors of BC and the ministry of health, rural health authorities such as Vancouver Coastal Health, and University of British Columbia.
Powell River’s new doctor, Dr. Wassan Thwainy, will be arriving in September.
Thwainy, who trained in Iraq, just recently completed her practice-ready assessment on the Lower Sunshine Coast. She toured Powell River in July.
According to Dr. Bruce Hobson, chair of Powell River Division of Family Practice, Thwainy has not yet decided where in Powell River to practice medicine.
In return for becoming licensed to practice in BC, the doctors take on a three-year return-of-service agreement to practice full-time family medicine in rural areas throughout the province.
According to Ruddiman, the pilot program accepted 15 out of 337 applicants for its first round.
“These are physicians who otherwise weren’t working as doctors in British Columbia, but were eligible to work if they completed the practice-readiness assessment,” said Ruddiman.
Criteria for entrance into the pilot program included completion of medical school at an accredited institution recognized by the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada. Additionally, doctors applying to the program had to have practiced medicine within the last two years and have completed residency training in family medicine.
The announcement of a new family doctor for Powell River coincides with the closure of walk-in hours at the Marine Medical Building, which has meant that many residents have had to go to the emergency department at Powell River General Hospital for basic medical care, such as having prescriptions filled.
While representatives for the clinic or the division of family practice were unavailable to speak to the Peak before press time, the decision follows a policy change by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC this July, which requires walk-in clinics to provide continuing care to patients without family doctors. The change has seen upheaval across the province, including some walk-in clinics requiring that patients already have family doctors before being allowed to see a clinic physician.
Approximately 5,000 residents are without family doctors in Powell River despite there being about 26 such doctors in town, according to Hobson.
“There’s a recognition that you can’t go by numbers of physicians to say whether or not there’s a need,” he said. He has worked in the past to explain to Vancouver Coastal Health that while there may be a certain number of physicians in Powell River, not all work full time and there is still a doctor shortage.
Vancouver Coastal Health was given only one doctor from the pilot program for placement and appointing that doctor to Powell River amounts to recognition of the need in this region, explained Hobson—a need not easily remedied by the addition of a single doctor, he added.
There is a high turnover rate for doctors in Powell River, said Hobson. “Even if we had four doctors come and take care of all the unattached people, we would still have to continue our planning to replace doctors. There is never just one solution that will take care of it all.”
Even so, he said, one full-time family doctor can look after 1,100 to 1,200 patients.
According to Hobson, the GP for Me program instituted by the division of family practice this year, laid the groundwork for recruiting and retaining doctors in the region.
“GP for Me provides a framework by which we can understand what the community’s needs are,” he said. “We’ve done surveys to identify what kind of practices the family physicians are involved in, full-time or part-time.”
The program also works closely with community members in smoothing the transition to life in Powell River for doctors and their families—in one instance helping find work for a doctor’s partner.
Other rural areas set to receive new physicians as part of the new province-wide program include Fort St. John, Lillooet, Port Hardy, Dawson Creek, McBride, Terrace, Quesnel, Hazelton, Invermere and Castlegar.
A second cohort of 16 physicians are set to go through the PRA-BC program this fall.
