New Incentive Program Offered to Find Doctors to Practice in Rural B.C.
Prince George, B.C.- Seven Northern Health communities are among 17 in B.C. which are under a new incentive program to find Doctors.
The new incentive will provide each physician with a one time payment of $100 thousand dollars when they commit to a three year term of service in one of the designated communities.
Participating physicians will receive $50,000 when they start working in the community. The balance will be paid once they have completed one year of service. The full amount must be repaid if the 3 year commitment is not honoured.
Under Northern Health, the communities and their physician needs are as follows:
- Burns Lake: one general practitioner
- Chetwynd: one general practitioner
- Hazelton: one general practitioner
- Kitimat: one general practitioner
- Quesnel: one internist (internal medicine)
- Terrace: one anesthesiologist
- Tumbler Ridge: one general practitioner
The Government of B.C. and the BC Medical Association are partners in this incentive program.
"This initiative will be a boost to many patients living in areas of the province that just don’t have enough physicians to take care of them," said Dr. Shelley Ross, president of the BC Medical Association. "The BCMA is committed to providing British Columbians with the highest standard of health care, so if we can make it more attractive for physicians to set up practice in rural areas, we should."
Comments
Whatever happened to the “Hypocratic Oath?” It is no wonder that doctors are as much problem as they are. People in PG are subjected to horrible doctors and cannot change if they are poorly treated. I know many unhappy patients of terrible mistreatment from doctors. My doctor blunders steadily and when he is called on the carpet, he treats me with disrespect and ignores my waiting in his wait room. He mistakenly goofed up on a medical form and will not admit it to the insurance company even though they know he did it. The arrogance and greed offered up by some doctors in Prince George is phenomenal. An agreement has been reached among PG doctors, that if you have a doctor, you cannot change so people won’t jump all over (supposedly).
Isn’t there a nasty bite of income tax out of that $50 thou? To a doctor even after expenses IMO that is chump change. I know of a doctor who wants to retire but can’t because know one wants to live here AND wants to take over his practise. Move here as a doc. Set up a practise. Get to know a million nice patients who need you, then try to leave. In 99% of the cases with the doctors, their hearts won’t let them leave. Plus finding another doctor to take your case load. Put yourself in their place as a doctor. What would you do? Good luck to the new doctors who move up here.
This is just the supply/demand curve of economics at work. More people not willing to take care of themselves, fewer people to care for them, hence, doctors become the hot commodity.
Solution – reduce demand, or increase supply. Now, hard to get people to pass on the fast food and ride a bike, so probably easier to increase supply.
Create a new kind of doctor. Instead of the four years they spend getting an undergraduate degree – which can be in anything, including french literature, create a M.D. degree only, which would be about 3 years shorter, reducing the cost of medical school, and increase the supply of doctors. Once there are enough of them that they compete for patients, some will move to remote communities where competition is less, and those who don’t, will change their attitude because you have a choice.
Until that day comes though, other than medical tourism to places like India, what you see, is what you get.
Its the BC Medical profession that determines how many Doctors go through the University System, and how many doctors can set up practice in BC. They not the Government or the general public will decide on the number of doctors.
If one were to increase the number of Doctors to serve the needs of all the patients in BC in all areas, there would be a corresponding drop in Doctors incomes.
So that is not going to happen.
Some Doctors already get paid a salary to work in remote areas, mainly because these areas do not have enough patients for them to gross $300,000.00 plus like they do in the Southern climes.
Doctors are no different that other people (Professionals) who work in the North. If you want them you will have to pay dearly, and even then they might not come.
We now have the **Train them in the North** and they will stay in the North, and the $100,000.00 bribe. What next??
western2 If I were a doctor I could just say “The Charter of Rights lets me use my “Hypocratic Oath” anywhere in Canada I want”. So there! Much more rewarding “Do no harm(ing)” in Vancouver than PG.
Ski50 then there would be less money to the industrial education complex, never happen. The push is to more and more whimsical education.
I have never been able to understand the term political scientist. Is that just some made to order term for credibility?
How about changing the standards so that foreign trained doctors can practice here. Are those trained in foreign lands that different than those doctors we train here? Some are most likely better. Relax the standards.
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