Lake Cowichan council has requested a meeting with Health Minister Josie Osborne to talk about the looming doctor shortage within the community.
The hope is to think "outside of the box" to address a dire community need for health care providers in west Cowichan.
At the end of January it was revealed both Dr. Dave Froese and Dr. Wagdy Basily would be moving on and with less than two full-time nurse practitioners working in the community, finding a solution has become more urgent.
In a Jan. 28 council meeting Lake Cowichan Mayor Tim McGonigle said council had looked at the Colwood model B次元官网网址� to self-fund a doctor through the local government B次元官网网址� but said it would be unfair to taxpayers.
"Unfortunately with our tax base of 87 per cent residential property, we don't feel that that is an avenue that we could accommodate on our tax base but there are other ideas out there," he said.
"Cumberland has done significant work on attracting physicians B次元官网网址� upwards to seven physicians that they have allocated within their communities B次元官网网址� but one of the problems is housing, child care and especially for female physicians who wish to start a family who may not be able to get medical leave or maternity leave to start that family.
"Many physicians don't want to work 60 to 70 hours as current physicians may do so there has to be a work life balance," McGonigle added.
With the 6,500-and-increasing population, particularly the relative high number of aged individuals in the area, local health care services are becoming even more necessary.
"Be reassured that we are doing everything we can within our power, within what we have within our toolbox to try and entice family physicians to our area," McGonigle said. "We have lacked in the West Cowichan area for urgent and primary care services. That's only one area that can be accommodated to help our aged population which reside in the west Cowichan area."
McGonigle suggested that perhaps the answer is to look at accommodating more nurse practitioners in the interim as officials seek permanent family physicians to relocate or to be placed within the community.
A meeting with the health minister is pending.
