Williams Lake mayor and council talked about physician recruitment and retention with Interior Health (IH) representatives at a council meeting on Feb. 27.
After IH representatives provided a quarterly update to the council on everything from staffing, the urgent and primary care clinic coming to the community and the ongoing hospital upgrades, mayor and council wanted to talk recruitment and retention.
In their presentation, IH noted the community’s role in recruitment comes in with regards to ensuring the families of physicians have the things they need in the community. The fierce competition between communities for health care workers and especially physicians, means if the physician’s family is unable to access things like child care, housing or other necessities or amenities, then this can be a barrier for recruitment and retention.
Rathor noted new child care spaces will be available soon, with completion of the new facility the city has helped to fund at the Columneetza site expected later this year.
He asked Diane Shendruk, VP of Clinical Operations, IH north, how she thought the health care landing program the city and regional district have supported is doing. The program helps incoming health care workers by taking care of the logistics of things like vehicle rentals and housing arrangement for visiting locums.
“My staff, particularly the economic development manager and her associate, are spending a lot of time and effort in collaboration with the regional district hospital board,” said Rathor, in asking Interior Health if they thought it was helping.
Shendruk said the best way forward is working together, and said she thinks the program is making a difference.
“I wholeheartedly would agree that we are making a difference, and we can’t do it alone,” said Shendruk.
READ MORE: Health care landing program seeing successes in Williams Lake, 100 Mile House
Coun. Sheila Boehm pointed out what she believes is still the “much larger discrepancy in rural B.C.” in regards to access to primary care.
Boehm said she knows of people who are going to the hospital in 100 Mile House rather than the one in Williams Lake due to the long wait times.
She asked if there was going to be a standard of care for how long tests take in rural B.C. versus larger centres like Kamloops and Kelowna.
Shendruk said there is a standard of care.
“We agree with you, our rural resources do need to be strengthened,” said Shendruk.
Boehm said she did not believe there is a standard of care being met, recounting a story of her friend who was unable to get an emergency ultrasound for her child in the middle of the night, and was not then sent elsewhere to get one.
“I absolutely don’t believe that,” said Boehm, noting she knows the staff and locums are working very hard to keep things open, but there is simply not enough staff to meet the needs of patients.
“It’s about length of time for tests, I don’t believe it’s the same in rural B.C.,” she said.
Boehm also said she believes the morale in the hospital is at a record low.
“You guys might think it’s OK, it’s not.”
She said this is a risk for losing even more staff.
Coun. Joan Flaspohler asked Shendruk and her team about exit interviews, acknowledging the work being done to try and deal with the current health care crisis.
“It’s not an easy situation that we’re in,” said Flaspohler.
“I want to know flat out if there’s something that needs to be done on our end or focused on so that we can improve retention,” asked Flaspohler.
According to Shendruk, IH’s recruitment and retention team did visit the community and do some interviews.
“It’s not always that people are leaving a situation, it’s that they have so much choice right now,” she said, both within Canada and internationally.
“Typically it’s that they’re moving towards something else, not that they’re running away from something here,” she said, noting the outflow is slowing down and so she believes they are on the right track to retain workers.
Dr. Roland Engelbrecht, chief of staff for Cariboo Memorial Hospital, said he loves Williams Lake and its amenities, but you can never do too much for recruitment and he continues to look for ways to attract and recruit those who don’t know the city.
READ MORE: Five new physicians coming to Williams Lake
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