Doctor-patient checkups may soon be a novelty in the North Okanagan city of Enderby.
Like many rural communities in the Interior, Enderby is facing a looming doctor’s shortage.
The town will soon go from five doctors to two. The city’s private clinic has three doctors but one of them is retiring. The community’s other medical clinic, which is run by Interior Health, has two doctors but one is retiring next week and the other is moving to Vancouver in the fall.
“It’s going to be very dire,” said Enderby mayor Howie Cyr. “There is a tremendous amount of concern and stress in the community right now.”
Dr. Allastair Annan is retiring next week. While he loves the community, he acknowledges there is a potential recruiting challenge.
“There is no hospital here, which for a young physician’s point of view might be a little bit negative,” Annan said. “But there are hospitals fairly close by.”
Interior Health is hoping innovative ways help lure doctors to the area.
Kristine Larsen, the IH manager for the Okanagan, says IHA is using social media to get the word out to a broader range of physicians. She notes she hopes the web campaign attracts the attention of younger physicians as well.
However, the situation has become so bleak that Enderby City Council passed a resolution on Monday to urge the provincial government to revise their incentive program for attracting doctors to rural communities.
“We feel as a council that they need to take into consideration the demographics of the community,” Cyr said.
Under the current system, doctors who move to Enderby are not rewarded with the same incentives as those moving to other rural areas since Enderby is close to larger cities like Vernon.
The serious attrition of doctors in the city is not the first big hit for healthcare in Enderby: the city’s hospital was closed down 10 years ago.
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