A Port Hardy physician says he is prepared to dip into his own pocket to pay the salary and benefits for a physician’s assistant because of the severe shortage of medical professionals in northern Vancouver Island.
As of July 1, Dr. Alex Nataros will be the only emergency department physician in the town of nearly 4,000.
This is the latest blow to the North Island where shortages of medical professionals have led to frequent emergency departments closures.
On Friday, Island Health sent out a notice saying that an existing temporary closure of the emergency department in Port Hardy is being extended because of a staff shortage.
It will be closed from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. through to the morning of Feb. 6.
Meanwhile, plans call for Port McNeill’s emergency department to remain open around the clock.
Of the three other doctors who are working in Port Hardy’s emergency department currently, one leaves at the end of March and the other two are going at the end of June, Nataros said Sunday.
The province needs to think about permitting physician assistants, who are employed in other provinces and with the Canadian military, to work in B.C., where they could fill a need in rural communities, he said.
Physician assistants require approval from the Ministry of Health to be hired in B.C., something that has not happened yet, he said.
“As of July 1, am I going to be calling on the government to call in the military to provide medical care in Port Hardy?”
“Unfortunately, our situation now is potentially that dire.”
The District of Port Hardy is adding its voice to the call for physician assistants. Mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt sent a letter Friday to Health Minister Adrian Dix urging the province to authorize using physician assistants.
Nataros said he will personally cover salary and benefits for a physician assistant, who he said can earn about $80,000 to $100,000 per year.
He has hired a physician assistant currently working in Alberta,subject to provincial approval.
The Canadian Association of Physician Assistants said the assistants are clinicians educated in a medical school model who practice under the supervision of licensed physicians. They are intended to extend the reach of a physician.
Duties can include conducting physical examinations, ordering and interpreting tests, prescribing medication and developing treatment plans, the association said.
While working in rural Manitoba in the past, Nataros worked with physician assistants and saw “how transformational they are to rural and remote health care delivery.
“And so from my perspective, it is a no-brainer. … It is a proven cost-effective and culturally safe way of delivering care.”
Nataros said Indigenous residents in the North Island are under-treated and under-served and their needs could be better met by bringing in a physician assistant.
Patients on the North Island are seeing a revolving door of doctors, he said. “The population here is more patient than I can imagine.”
It is known that rural health outcomes are poor compared to the rest of the population. “That is not fair,” he said, adding that this is preventable with physicians assistants, as demonstrated across Canada.
Nataros said that his five-year vision for the North Island is to have a full complement of physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners with everyone collaborating.
cjwilson@timescolonist.com
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