BC Medical President Optimistic UNBC Medical Grads Will Stay In The Rural Areas
Friday, February 22, 2013 @ 4:00 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The President of the BC Medical Association, Dr. Shelley Ross, says she is optimistic that future graduating classes of UNBC medical students will choose to live and work in the north.
Ross said her optimism comes from a visit to the program at UNBC where she talked with students who come from rural areas, and want to return to their roots.
"You must keep in mind that many of the students who have graduated from the UNBC medical program have gone on to the specialties and the true test will come when they graduate this year and we see where they are taking up residency" says Dr. Ross.
She says it is critical that students from the rural areas are enrolled in the program at UNBC "because studies have found that people who come from the rural parts of the province return to their families and friends regardless of whether they are from Ft St James, Vanderhoof or Dawson Creek."
Speaking of Dawson Creek, Dr Ross says three quarters of the doctors who are practising in Dawson Creek are from South Africa and that source of doctors is no longer available. The average age of the doctors in Dawson Creek is 50 for the general practitioner and 55 for those practising in the specialties.
"We need 300 new doctors a year in BC to make up for this upcoming problem" says Dr. Ross, "The new generation does not want to work as hard as their old counterparts, not that there is anything wrong with that" Dr Ross added "but that means we need more people in the system."
Dr Ross is on a province wide tour, speaking and talking to the profession and members of the public.
Comments
And who is paying for there education??this is not cheap?
for the first 10 yrs they should be given a contract in the boonies…
2010. 16 Graduates, 9 recruited by Northern Health.
2011. 10 Graduates None recruited.
2012. 10 Graduates 2 stayed in the North.
Seems like we have a problem here. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. You can’t build a program based on a catch phrase. *Train them in the North and they will stay in the North*
zyblxteu: they pay tuition, just like the students at UBC, Victoria and now in Kelowna. It is not free.
I thought the head of the UNBC medical program was just quoted as saying that none of the recent grads stayed in the North?!
Someone needs to update Dr. Ross.
As long as there is need for them in bigger townships, they will not stay here permanently. Countries have enticed doctors to remote areas by shortening their obligation period to serve in remote areas (compared to big townships), but ultimately they will move afterwards for better quality of life.
In other countries they have successfully increased the number of medical graduates to the extent that there is no option for finding work unless the doctors go work in remote areas or to other countries.
The problem is supply and demand. Train more doctors and nurses. Bachelor graduates can go to do medical programs instead of doing several years in PhDs if there is more medical seats available in the universities and the same level of financial support to do med similar to university grants to do PhDs. PhDs can always be imported as immigrants more easily than importing Doctors because of the need for re-training the immigrant Doctors.
Just put yourself in their place. Would YOU want to live and work here if you could work anywhere else? No mortgage, no ties,your equals in your circle of friends who will eventually move also. A long time ago a plastic surgeon told me he only gets a half a day a week to work in the hospital. Mucho incentive, pal. Crappy roads, crappy air, limited shopping, dysfunctional city council, over priced gasoline all the time, no PAC, (ha ha ha ) ad infinitum. (that’s Latin)
“Dr. Ross is optomistic….” So am I. Have been for more than twenty years here. Taxes will go down or at least stay the same. Better roads, cleaner air,city council with collective IQs of more than twelve, comparable gas prices and most of all ninnies who won’t turn left on a green light. They wait for the new arrow. Despite all that, I would never live anywhere else.
That’s not being optimistic, that’s being delusional!
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