New regulations are making it difficult for doctors from South Africa hoping to establish family practices in Canada and Margot Schweers is outraged the taps have essentially been turned off on a physician pipeline that's been the lifeblood of her hometown.
The 79-year-old woman lives in Fort St. James, a town of about 4,000 that faces significant challenges with just one family doctor left to serve the area. Schweers says the situation is becoming intolerable, with clinical appointments difficult to obtain and the emergency ward at Stuart Lake Hospital in Fort St. James open only on weekends as health authorities scramble to fill the doctor shortage.
"This is a problem for Fort St. James because for years we have only had South African physicians and now we are no longer able to recruit out of South Africa," said Schweers.
"I am old, for me it doesn't matter, but can you imagine if you are a young woman and pregnant and each time you have a different doctor. Vanderhoof has 14 doctors and we have one. That is outrageous. We have 4,000 adult people here. It's just a catastrophe."
Last year, federal and provincial health ministries met with South African government officials and agreed to stop recruiting that country's doctors. The BCCPS changed its bylaws in December and no longer accepts the credentials of family doctors who are international graduates unless they were trained in Canada, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand. The new rule does not yet apply to specialists.
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