Prince George is now home to three new psychiatrists and a fourth is on the way to establishing a practice in Prince Rupert.
And there are no longer any vacancies for the emergency medicine doctors in Prince George at UHNBC.
For the Northern Health Authority, which recruits doctors for all of northern B.C., their success over the past two months filling what have traditionally been hard-to-recruit physician roles is like hitting jackpot.
"Overall, we're happy with the direction of recruitment, but I'd never say we're completely satisfied until we have every position filled and a succession plan for every critical vacancy," said Dr. David Butcher, Northern Health's vice-president of medicine, who gave an update of physician recruiting at Monday's Northern Health public meeting.
"The department of psychiatry, particularly in Prince George, has really struggled with its manpower over the last number of years, so this is really a positive development to not only be able to recruit to Prince George but also some of the communities in the northwest."
Northern Health still has five vacancies for psychiatrists, among 54 doctor positions available in the northern region.
Butcher said two other psychiatric specialists have indicated an interest in relocating to northwestern B.C. (one in Terrace, one in Smithers) and will be coming for site visits as part of the recruitment process.
Northern Health has a contract with the Prince George Emergency Group, which helps broker emergency doctor recruitment. For the last several years, Butcher says there has always been emergency positions available at UHNBC - until now.
"[These] positions are full, they're not looking for any new recruits, so that's a very good news story," said Butcher.
Northern B.C. currently has a shortage of 34 family doctors, as well as positions available for nine internal medicine specialists, one obstetrician/gynecologist, one otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat specialist), two pediatricians, and two radiologists.
"We show 34 family physician vacancies, although likely we could accommodate more than that and we're working in Prince George with the division of family practice to try to determine the real number of family physicians we need," said Butcher. "Traditionally we look at the number we need, based on the hospitals' needs, on the assumption that's what's needed for the community. In a small community, that's a fairly safe assumption, but in a community like Prince George that assumption isn't necessarily as valid."
Since 2008, the Northern Medical Program at UNBC has been producing graduates, and Butcher says that's helped fill the Northern Health roster.
Burns Lake remains a trouble spot for Northern Health with doctor shortages creating a crisis situation, despite the addition of two new family physicians, one who started in November and the other who is due to arrive in 2012.
