New program injects 14 new physicians into rural B.C. communities

VICTORIA – Fourteen internationally-trained doctors are fanning out across British Columbia as part of a program to provide better primary health care in rural areas.

A release from the Ministry of Health says all 14 doctors will work as family physicians in a total of 11 communities, and each has pledged to remain in the same community for at least three years.

Single physicians will set up practices in Dawson Creek, McBride, Terrace, Quesnel, Hazelton, Invermere, Castlegar and Powell River.

Fort St. John, Lillooet and Port Hardy will each welcome two general practitioners.

The 14 represent the first group to take part in the $2.8-million Practice Ready Assessment pilot program, where doctors trained outside Canada spend three months with a B.C. physician who evaluates their skills.

A second group of 16 doctors is slated to begin the program this fall.