The 100 Mile District General Hospital (File photo: CFJC Today).

By Stephanie Swensrude

ATTRACTING DOCTORS

Incentives, funding and new staff helping healthcare workers land in Williams Lake, 100 Mile House

Sep 4, 2022 | 9:42 AM

WILLIAMS LAKE — The City of Williams Lake has hired two coordinators that will help welcome healthcare workers arriving in the city and in 100 Mile House in hopes of addressing the physician shortage in the central and south Cariboo region.

The new staff members, who are long-time residents of Williams Lake, will work in the two communities to ensure a smooth moving process for the much-needed healthcare employees.

“We will have a strong focus going forward on ensuring that when we have arrivals, they have a good experience by helping to connect them with their peers and the community, as well as providing support to their families through employment opportunities and childcare and school registration,” said Beth Veenkamp, manager of economic development for the City.

The positions are being funded by the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital Board (CCRHD). Veenkamp said the funding will provide incentives that will attract medical professionals to the community — a practice that she said is unfortunately becoming the new norm.

“Provisions for accommodation and travel are part of the incentives used to attract locums to communities, and we hope that with the launch of this new initiative we will be in a better position to effectively compete with other similar sized rural communities to attract these finite resources to our region.”

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While the City will support the new workers with housing and travel, they also want to work on retention for the new workers.

The two employees will also help out in nearby 100 Mile House, located about an hour south of Williams Lake.

“Council realizes that the physician shortage in our region is extremely urgent, and we are pleased to be able to offer our support to the community of 100 Mile House as well,” says Mayor Walt Cobb.