Shuswap community hoping cash reward will end their doctor search

SCOTCH CREEK – North Shuswap residents haven’t had a regular family doctor for over a year. Desperate to find a physician they’ve tried a wide variety of tactics to attract a M.D. to Scotch Creek.

However, nothing has worked as well as the $5,000 reward they are offering now. The North Shuswap Health Centre Society is promising that the money could be yours if you give them a tip that leads to a doctor setting up practice in the area.

Read More: Shuswap community looks online to fill doctor gap

The new recruit needs to be a family doctor and they’d have to stay for at least three years.

“As soon as they sign the contract and come here for the first day the $5,000 is yours,” explains Simpson.

The community has been feeling the pain without a regular family doctor for over a year. The closest family physicians are now in Chase, a 24 minute drive away.

However, some resident travel even further to see a physician.

Scotch Creek resident Ron Wilkinson must make an hour long drive to Kamloops to see his doctor.

The community has tried other tactics in the past to attract a physician: they’ve advertised roadside, offered incentives, and worked with recruiters. The North Shuswap Health Centre Society even raised the funds to buy the local clinic.

“We are doing what we can to get noticed, to show off the North Shuswap and to get somebody here to stay with us on a long term basis. Three years is the start but we want them to be here forever,” says Simpson.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We are doing what we can to get noticed, to show off the North Shuswap and to get somebody here to stay with us on a long term basis. Three years is the start but we want them to be here forever," says Simpson.

So far the reward and the media exposure has generated interest.

“This has got us more information, more leads than anything else that we have done so far,” says Simpson.

The community has also gone online to try and soften the blow of not having a doctor.

An Okanagan M.D. has been seeing North Shuswap patients via the internet once a week and a nurse practitioner visits every two weeks but that hasn’t replaced the need for a full time physician in the area.