-Town hoping for four more doctors-
OSOYOOS TIMES-January 2, 2008-
By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times
Osoyoos will have two new doctors join its medical community in 2008 thanks to a town-led recruitment effort.
Matthys and Ansunette de Vries, a couple from Cape Town, South Africa, told Interior Health of their decision to make Osoyoos their home last month.
The news was passed on to members of Destination Osoyoos and the town's medical community at a meeting in Oliver two weeks ago.
We were really pleased that this husband and wife from South Africa have decided to come here, said Derek Noske, DO's first vice chair.
He added it will be four or five months before the couple start practising medicine here.
Cathy Stashyn, a recruitment services leader for Interior Health, said the de Vries will use that time to finish their immigration paperwork.
Matthys will begin practising as soon as the couple arrives in Osoyoos while Ansunette completes part of her training, she added.
The de Vries visited Osoyoos in October of 2007 and were given tours of the area by members of DO and several local doctors.
Noske said he spent a day with the couple and showed them available housing options as well as some of the town's amenities.
The reason the doctors decided on Osoyoos instead of the other B.C. communities they visited was because the town really came out to make them feel welcome, Noske said.
It was a combined effort that really impressed the heck out of them, he said.
It didn't hurt, he added, that Osoyoos' climate and geography are similar to what the couple is used to in South Africa.
I'm sure the weather had some role.rnRecruiting the couple was a major victory for the town as Osoyoos can expect to lose doctors in the next few years, Noske said.
We're looking at a shortage of about six physicians in the next two years, he said.
Many doctors here are close to retirement or are moving away, he added.
Beyond the problems of doctor shortages, the region's physicians are also dealing with client loads that are much larger than in other parts of the province. Noske said the average general practitioner in B.C. carries between 900 and 950 patients.
A doctor in the South Okanagan can carry as many as 1,600 patients.
Some doctors are so overloaded at their practices that they are now interviewing potential patients, Noske said.
He added recruiting doctors to the area to relieve such loads has not been easy.
Doctors in Osoyoos and Oliver are required to take part in a rotation to cover the emergency room at the Oliver hospital on top of their own clinic duties. Some physicians who have expressed interest in coming to Osoyoos have balked at such a requirement, Noske said.
Canada's efforts to recruit South African doctors have also come under some fire, he added. The country has said Canada is doing too much to encourage its doctors to emigrate.
The de Vries, however, approached Canada about coming here, Noske said.
The town is now looking at helping 10 nurses from the United Kingdom emigrate to B.C. to work in various areas around the South Okanagan, including Osoyoos, Noske said.
He also said the drive to bring more doctors to town is still in full force despite bringing the South African couple on board.
We'd like to get three or four more new doctors, he said. That's going to be an ongoing effort.
