Good News For B.C. Residents - More Docs - Opinion 250 - News for Northern and Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada

Good News For B.C. Residents - More Docs

Saturday, December 04, 2010 04:03 AM

Prince George, B.C. - The number of doctors practising in B.C. took a jump not seen in 30-years...

A national report just released by the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) shows that the number of physicians in our province increased by 5.4-percent between 2008 and 2009, the highest single-year increase in three decades.

Nationally, the news is also good, with a 4.1-percent climb -- CIHI notes this increase in the number of doctors practising across the country is triple the population growth rate of 1.2-percent and is the greatest percentage increase in 20-years.

B.C. Health Services Minister, Colin Hansen, says, "We are working hard to make B.C. an attractive place to live and work for doctors and we offer one of the most comprehensive compensation and benefits packages in the country."

It seems to be working, the CIHI report says B.C. had 212 physicians per 100,000 population -- fourth highest among the provinces -- compared to the Canadian average of 201 per 100,000.

Hansen points to the government's commitment to increasing the number of doctors educated in the province, with the doubling of the number of available medical school spaces from 128 to 256, with UBC's medical school expansion to UNBC and Victoria. A new campus is expected to open in Kelowna in January 2012, bringing the number of doctors graduating each year in B.C. up to 288.

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Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2010 04:03 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on December 4 2010 5:06 AM

Don't forget that the Liberal government sees B.C. as Vancouver to Kelowna. We'll be lucky to see more Dr's here in Prince George, Vanderhoof, Ft St John, Ft Nelson etc.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 4 2010 5:51 AM

And they will be practicing where?
I would expect the majority of them to work somewhere between Vancouver and Kelowna,as they always do.
Assuming of course,that they even exist.
This is nothing more than typical Colin Hansen feel-good,Liberal spin, at a time when they need all the positive PR they can get.
I sincerely doubt the north will see much,if any, benefit from this.
You just keep yapping Colin...you're special!

Posted by: Fuzzy on December 4 2010 7:58 AM

and how many of the Dr.s counted are registered but "retired?" They are still on the books... But this is good news!!! 7 years without a doctor now maybe only 7 more before one here abouts has "space."

Posted by: rufus1 on December 4 2010 8:48 AM

my dr and 3 others leaving from one office alone this month --- all moving to the okanogan

Posted by: gus on December 4 2010 8:58 AM

acrider54 wrote: "Don't forget that the Liberal government sees B.C. as Vancouver to Kelowna"

That is not a "Party in Power" phenomenon. That is a population base phenomenon which can be attributed to all political parties that have been in power.

Had BC created the capital in the middle of the province, in a similar fashion to Alberta, rather than on some remote island off the coast, things might have been different. ... :-)

Of course they might also have been different had the gas fields been located in the Nechako Valley rather than in the Peace River region.

Natural resources are easy to extract and relocate. Natural resources don't vote. People vote. People are concentrated in the lower left hand corner of the BC map. That is who gets served first and best. That is the same everywhere in the world.

Posted by: Retired on December 4 2010 9:23 AM

We have to many doctors as it is feeding off the public health system that we have. Why not take control of your own health and stop the doctors and the drug companies from getting rich off the public purse.
Cheers

Posted by: Tyson_6795 on December 4 2010 9:41 AM

I agree with how everyone thing is fopcused in the lower mainland. In my opinion we need the pop. Increase up here, at least were becoming more developed. With the distribution centre coming soon, I heard that our population could ioncrease to 200,000 mark... But we'll see, i can see it happening with our increasing trading with Asia and PG being the closest major city to export to Asia, not to mention that we have the facilities to grow rapidly, e.g. World class education facilities.

Posted by: gus on December 4 2010 12:29 PM

"With the distribution centre coming soon"...

Oh ... cannabis distribution? .... :-)

I agree, we will be growing to 200,000 .... we keep pushing the target day ahead though. In the mid 1970's it was predicted to be here by 1999. Loks like it will take a few more years now.

:-)

Posted by: gus on December 4 2010 12:30 PM

Oh ... forgot ..... Edmonton is projectd to be a city of 3 million by that time and the GVRD 6 million.

Posted by: BCBud on December 4 2010 1:24 PM

I believe Graduates of the program at UNBC were given incentives to stay a certain amount of time practicing within Northern Health's area of responsibility. Northern British Columbia and the Yukon is Northern Health's territory.

This area has historically been without doctors and adequate local medical staff like GP's, even worse then the smaller communities surrounding our area of the planet... We are not even a big city any more.

We have had it lucky (health wise)living here in Prince George with the Nechaco clinic. We have direct access to way more then basic health care locally. this is even true for the one's who do not have a regular GP. Emergency Room, professionals in the hospital, this is a luxury. Cancer center construction, Commonwealth Health Center means they will stay for the employment. It will be all be here when they decide to stay in town to practice after graduating... We will have the jobs in the fields they are learning.

Many communities are lacking in even basic health care within a hundred Km's. It is hoped that many students will consider the incentives to stay in the remote areas of the Provence and territories. With annual graduation of new doctors emerging from UNBC now, when they take the incentives the north should fill its quota of health care workers and Prince George will fill last...

Posted by: BCBud on December 4 2010 1:40 PM

Posted by: Dragonmaster on December 4 2010 3:23 PM

Yup, bombard us with all these little good news stories and the sheep will forget the Liberals history in BC. LOL, good luck with that!

Posted by: Harbinger on December 4 2010 4:48 PM

Don't even contemplate thinking about selling our NH buses, just yet.

Posted by: supertech on December 4 2010 10:06 PM

Problem is; more docs means more pay for them and more money out of our pockets. It might be better to die. We'll never know til we're gone.

Posted by: Pojeb_sa on December 4 2010 11:00 PM

OH BOY! Does this mean more white south african doctors have been fleeing their homeland to practice here?

How come nobody ever asks why all these south african doctors are leaving, hmmm?

Posted by: Dragonmaster on December 5 2010 12:08 PM

Or, how many of these south african doctors have Black patients?