Northern Health is looking for 15 specialists to fill empty positions in Prince George, according to a provincial government website that recruits doctors.
Specialties in demand include neurologists, anaesthesiologists, geriatricians and dermatologists.
Ronald Chapman, Northern Health's vice-president of medicine, said Prince George is in a good position when it comes to specialists compared to the past.
"Before the medical school arrived, there was quite a shortage of specialists in Prince George - a substantial shortage. I think since the medical school has arrived, we've actually been in a far better position then we've ever been beforehand in terms of specialists," he said.
Chapman said Northern Health has the specialties of general surgery, orthopedics, plastic surgery, urology, ophthalmology and pediatrics fully staffed. He added other specialist doctors are about to set up practices in Prince George: an internalist is coming in late July or early August and a gynecologist/obstetrician is coming in September. An intensive care specialist set up shop earlier in the year, in March.
"I think we're in a far better position than we've ever been before with specialists but we're still actively recruiting to make sure we've got a full complement of specialists up in the north," he said.
The specialty the health region is having the most difficulty filling is dermatologists. In B.C., there are no dermatologists north of Kamloops, where a single doctor runs a practice that doesn't bill to the provincial medical services plan, said the dermatology section of the B.C. Medical Association.
"The reason why dermatology is such a difficult area to recruit to is that there's a shortage of dermatologists across the whole country," Chapman said, adding that there are only a limited number being trained in medical schools. "That makes it a very difficult specialty to recruit to."
Northern Health recruits doctors both within Canada and internationally, Chapman said. It advertises positions in medical journals and on a recruitment website run by the province. For hard-to-recruit specialties like dermatology, it rents booths at conferences focused on that specialty. Once a specialist expresses interest, the health region checks their information to see if they are eligible to practice, screens them, refers them to the College of Physicians if necessary, and then brings them to the community in which they are interested in practicing to ensure it's a good fit for the physician.
