By Cheryl Jahn

BC Family Doctors launches new campaign

Jan 23, 2025 | 3:36 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The first students of the Northern Medical Program took to the classrooms at the University of Northern BC in 2004. The school was the result of much attention to the failure of healthcare delivery in the North.

Since then, hundreds of doctors have graduated, many of whom are practising in rural and Northern BC. And now, the BC Family Doctors has launched the Fair Care Everywhere campaign.

“I think the B.C. family doctors have launched a new campaign to really make sure that rural health care is provided to the local populations, as well as cities and other places,” says Dr David Snadden. “We’ve been working, as you’ve been saying, for four decades over trying to make this happen.”

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Dr. Snadden is no stranger to the challenges of rural medicine. He was with the NMP since its inception. He says the solution goes beyond just training medical professionals, though that’s part of it.

“We also have to find ways of ensuring that those who already working in rural areas are properly supported and that the rural communities become places they want to be. How do you connect their families and connect them to the community so that it’s a place you want to work?”

Mackenzie is just one rural community that has suffered through tough times in health care and Dr. Snadden says that is just one of the drives behind this campaign.

“What we’ve seen in the media since the pandemic is emergency room closures and lack of both medical and nursing staff to keep places open. And also some real solutions to try and help that, like some of the real time virtual care that’s provided by emergency doctors and others.”

He says the message of this campaign is to talk to those boots on the ground in rural medicine.

“We have to think about is a lot of the, if you like, best practice protocols are developed in urban settings and you can’t translate them into a rural area. So, for example, if there’s a protocol that says to deal with this condition, you’ve got to do a CT scan within four and a half hours. And that’s one of the protocols around stroke. How would you do that? If you’re in a remote community that’s 10 hours away? And if there’s snow falling, it’s two or three days away.”

Some key asks for the campaign include equitable compensation for rural primary care doctors, more healthcare staff and better transportation options for rural patients.