South Africa will no longer be as fertile a ground for Northern Health doctor recruitment programs.
Changes to reciprocity agreements between Canadian physician colleges and their counterparts in other countries means that general practitioners from South Africa will no longer have their credentials automatically recognized by local licensing boards.
Northern Health interim vice-president of medicine and northern interior medical director Dr. Susan MacDonald said at a board meeting Monday that the changes came into effect earlier this year due to the harmonization of various provincial licensing requirements.
The rule changes only apply to general practitioners. Specialists who want to come to the region from another country go through a different process.
From chief medical officer Dr. Ronald Chapman to a host of doctors locally and around the region, many South African doctors have chosen to relocate to northern B.C. and have helped to reduce the chronic shortage of physicians in the region.
MacDonald said the rule changes mean the agency must shift its focus, but it also must keep in mind what types of physicians its trying to attract.
"It's important that you have physicians who understand the clinical necessity of rural work," she said.
Recruitment in B.C. is more difficult due to the lack of a professional assessment framework in the province, according to MacDonald. In other provinces there is a process in place to have international recruits apply to have their credentials accepted.
With South Africa no longer in the picture, Northern Health is focusing its international recruiting efforts on countries which do have reciprocal qualifications agreements such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States.
In October, Northern Health recruiters attended the BMJ Careers Fair in London and MacDonald said there was significant interest out of the event. Some prospective recruits from that U.K. event have already been on site tours to northern B.C., although none have signed on for local jobs as of yet.
Northern Health has also begun putting job advertisements in British medical journals as another way to find possible overseas recruits.
MacDonald said the main thrust of Northern Health's recruitment efforts are domestic, both in B.C. and in other parts of Canada.
In the three months from September to November, Northern Health reported 46 physician vacancies, including 24 in family practice, 14 in internal medicine, two each in anesthesia, pathology and pediatrics and one each in psychiatry and radiology.
During that same period, seven new physicians started work in the Northern Health region including one in Prince George.
Fort St. James was a focus for Northern Health earlier this year when their complement of five physicians shrunk to one in a short period of time. With the help of community groups and a consultant, four doctors agreed to move there, with one starting in October and the other three slated for early 2013. Ironically two of the newcomers hail from South Africa.
"There's certainly been good success in the last few months, but there are still physician (positions) we're recruiting for," MacDonald said.
The targeted recruitment which worked so well in Fort St. James is now underway in Burns Lake, Chetwynd and Hudson's Hope.
Northern Health board chairman Dr. Charles Jago thanked MacDonald for the update and asked if future reports on physician recruitment could also include retention rates.
"It will give us a better picture if we're winning the battle," he said.
Jago also wanted more numbers on how many graduates of the Northern Medical Program were staying in the region.
"A lot of time and effort was invested in those programs and people are interested in seeing the payoff," he said.
