A dark cloud hangs over the future of the Dawson Creek Medical Clinic.
Unless something can be done to change its fate, the clinic will close its doors permanently on July 1, 2016, according to its sole physician, Dr. Michael Pilgrim.
Pilgrim intends to retire on that date, and his partner, the lone nurse practitioner at the clinic, will leave with him, according to a letter Pilgrim sent to the Alaska Highway News.
If no replacements are found, the clinic will close its doors for good - that is unless Northern Health can step up and create an "income guarantee" model at the clinic.
"Dawson Creek is heading into the same crisis that Fort St. John experienced," Pilgrim later explained over the phone. "As much as we will try to avoid it, it may be inevitable because of the fact that new doctors don't want to work in the old model of running your own clinic."
In its heyday, the Dawson Creek clinic was home to 12 doctors, a lab and an X-ray unit.
"Newly recruited doctors like those in Fort St. John are not interested in owning or running medical clinics," Pilgrim wrote. "They are on service contracts and work in facilities operated by Northern Health."
Such a facility owned by Northern Health recently opened up in Chetwynd, operating under what health authority officials refer to as an income guarantee model.
Northern Health's chief operating officer for the northeast, Anglea De Smit, said in a May interview that one of the advantages of Northern Health owning the building doctors work in is that their overhead is covered.
"It's a fee-for-service model so a physician's income is based on their productivity," she said.
"The income guarantee model is a very attractive, particularly for new graduate physicians who are concerned about whether or not they are going to be able to earn reasonable income."
It's unclear whether a similar clinic would be set up in Dawson Creek after Pilgrim's retirement.
"I have asked the health authority to help out and to keep the clinic going," Pilgrim said, "but, at this moment they've said they are not interested in doing that, so it remains to be seen."
Northern Health spokesman Jonathon Dyck said the decision to close the clinic would be entirely up to Pilgrim and his staff.
"We would look at if we can support them in other ways or see what we can try to do to help... I don't know what conversations have taken place so I don't want to speculate."
Dyck later noted that Northern Health was aware that Pilgrim is retiring and if another physician does not join to take over the practice, that could result in the potential closure of the Dawson Creek Medical Clinic.
"Family practices are typically owned and operated by the individual physician and we support them as best we can in the recruitment efforts," Dyck said in an email. "Decisions about operations are made by the owners of the facility. We will continue to work with Dr. Pilgrim as we do with all physicians in Dawson Creek and across the north."
Earlier this year, the Fort St. John Medical Clinic warned it would close by the end of the year if no new recruits could be found.
The clinic later announced that it would remain open after meetings were held with local doctors, Northern Health representatives and the Ministry of Health.
The meetings reportedly led to the development of a new practice model that could attract doctors to the community while retaining those that are currently in Fort St. John.
Recruitment of all medical personnel, not just doctors, has been a hot topic in the north for years, and is poised to be an issue for those running to represent the Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies constituents in October's federal election.
Sky-high rents are part of that problem, with Northern Health reporting in early July that this was the main battle in convincing young medical professionals to live in the north.
Fort St. John and Dawson Creek have the second- and third-highest apartment prices in B.C., respectively, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
"Because they are on provincial contracts, they are paid the same if they go to Houston, B.C. [where] they pay $600 a month for an apartment," De Smit said in a July interview. "As a new grad, when they have student loans and those types of things, they will say that is extra [money] in my pocket."
