B.C. island turns to recruiter as doctor's retirement puts clinic in jeopardy

Residents of Quadra Island, B.C., are scrambling to fundraise a recruitment drive, amid fear they could lose crucial medical services if they can't replace a retiring family doctor.

Dr. Steve Hughes' last day at the Quadra Island Medical Clinic is Sept. 30.

Speaking with CBC's On the Island, Quadra Island Health Society director Betty Doak said the community has been trying to find a replacement since they learned Hughes was leaving last year, but it hasn't received a single applicant.

"Many of the new grads aren't looking for family practice in a rural setting, they want something a little more urban, more access to hospitals and possibly a little more exciting," she said.

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"And many of the doctors that are looking at semi-retirement look at a rural site like ours and feel it doesn't really have some of the amenities that they might enjoy in retirement."

Doak says the situation is a potential crisis, as the clinic can't survive without a doctor to anchor it.

Quadra does have another doctor, but the clinic is too small to handle a registered nurse and lab services, meaning the island of about 2,700 people north of Campbell River could lose them.

The society and the Quadra Island Foundation are now trying to raise $50,000 to hire a professional recruiter to find a doctor.

"We did a search among several recruitment agencies before we settled on one, and we were told outright by one that they would be unable to supply a physician in a rural service," she said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said it was working to recruit doctors and improve access to primary care throughout the Island Health Region.

That includes the recruitment of new health-care workers in nearby Campbell River, B.C.'s new doctor pay model, efforts to add training seats and to recruit physicians from the U.S.

"We are encouraged to see people and communities stepping up with ideas and solutions to help combat the health-care worker shortage we are experiencing in B.C., Canada and globally," the statement added.

Paul Adams, executive director of the B.C. Rural Health Network, said Quadra's case reflects the plight of rural communities — and the problem is worsening.

About 40 per cent of B.C. family doctors are already at retirement age, he said, and finding replacements willing to shoulder the added burdens of rural practice is getting harder.

"For new physicians coming into practice, the challenge is that they're isolated and that they don't have the team necessary to support them in their day-to-day activity," he said.

"We need better team-based care. We need to build teams around people. We need to rebuild the social fabric of community, not only from a healthcare perspective, but broadly within rural community."

Adams praised the province's efforts to recruit doctors from outside of B.C. and to build a new medical school.

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But he said without improving resources and support systems in rural communities the number of vacancies will continue to grow, particularly in more remote communities like in B.C.'s north.

"I think ... the challenge is less in a beautiful Gulf Island community than it is if you're looking at some of some of the more isolated and remote communities across the province," he said.

Back on Quadra, Doak was effusive in her pitch to would-be doctors on the benefits of island life.

"It's a compassionate community. Neighbours care about neighbours," she said.

"I've lived here for over 50 years — I raised my children, we raised some of our grandchildren, and I really wouldn't want to live anywhere else."