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The Peace River Regional District says it’s requesting meetings with both Northern Lights College and the Maskwa Medical Centre in Grande Prairie, Alta., to discuss options to strengthen health care in northeast B.C.
The decision was made during its April 30 board meeting, with municipal leaders expressing that their communities are suffering from a shortage of doctors and nurses.
The Maskwa Medical Centre is a non-profit organization that is aiming to open by 2027, according to its website. Its goal is to provide access to medical specialists and services to the Alberta Peace region.
Northeast B.C. has close ties with Alberta, physically linked by the Peace River, itself.
Last fall, the regional district paused a $100,000 health-care scholarship fund with concerns about the effectiveness of money spent. The fund was originally created to address emergency department closures.
Electoral Area E Director Dan Rose says he’d like the board to consider using the fund to send medical students over the Alberta border to complete residencies, securing doctors for northeast B.C.
“They’re closed because they don’t have front-line staff to keep them open,” he said of ER closures across northeast B.C.
“The opportunity to train doctors down the road, have those seats from our area with the possibility of with an injection of cash into their tuition could evolve in a return to service for a number of doctors.”
Rose added that he hasn’t had a family doctor in three years, claiming approximately 3,000 seniors in the region are currently without a primary care physician.
Dawson Creek Mayor Darcy Dober says legislation has been relaxed, allowing patients to travel to B.C. and Alberta for care.
In March, the provincial government announced that it would be resuming scheduled surgeries through a partnership with Alberta.
However, Dober says he would also like to see more done to secure doctors, claiming there’s roughly 10,000 unattached patients in the south Peace region, well above Rose’s claim of 3,000.
“I realize all the other positions are short too, but without doctors, we don’t have much,” he said.
Electoral Area D Director Leonard Hiebert says he’d like to see a regional solution, and is interested in working out details on Maskwa to help the B.C. Peace.
“Looking at Maskwa, that could basically secure our future, but how do we get there?” he said.
Hiebert added that Northern Lights College — in Dawson and Fort St. John — has been a benefit to the region.
The college currently offers a full four-year Registered Nursing (RN) program in partnership with the University of Northern British Columbia, along with a bridging program for health-care aides to become Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs).
“The college right now has given us options that we can use, and they’ve given us options to get to where we need to be,” said Hiebert.
The registered nursing program was created with financial support from the regional district.
The college also launched “NLC Cares” in recent years, a strategy to create new training programs for health-care professionals in northern B.C., with $450,000 grant provided by the regional district.
In March, the college celebrated the opening of a six-bed training classroom for nursing and health-care students.
Northern Health College officials celebrate the opening of the new health lab at the Fort St. John campus. From left: Nicole Dahlen, dean of health sciences; Tara Hyland-Russell, vice-president of academics and research; Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen; and Northern Lights College president and CEO Todd Bondaroff. (Tom Summer/CBC)
Pouce Coupe Mayor Danielle Veach says she feels there’s an opportunity to continue working with the college and use the $100,000 to train and recruit doctors through Maskwa.
“I think that we are in a position where we could potentially be working not only from the nursing side and that area through health care, but also working to create physician positions as well.” she said.
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