New committee looks to retain health professionals

The Doctor Recruitment Committee in Bonnyville is no more as its been replaced by the Health Professions Attraction and Retention Committee.

During its first meeting, the committee reviewed the terms of reference which state the purpose of it is to develop and support a sustainable system for health professional attraction and retention that ensures ongoing health care services to the community. 

“I’m really happy to see these new terms of reference. This was the doctor recruitment committee we’ve grown we’ve evolved and as we continue to grow the emergency management side of things, we have the hospital attend these meetings,” said Bonnyville Mayor Elisa Brosseau during the Jan. 28 Bonnyville council meeting. “There is still the focus on doctor recruitment we still have funding there to help with the doctor recruitment side of things.”

She says there’s an opportunity for health professionals to share what’s going on. 

“It’s going to give an opportunity and an avenue for other health professionals in that industry, the hospital the BRFA (Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority), to be at the table and to talk about what’s going on in their worlds,” said Brosseau.

Coun. Brian McEvoy spoke about the process of recruiting physicians into the community.

“One of the key resources for recruiting physicians is to provide them with all of the allied health supports they need,” he said. 

McEvoy says discussions regarding retention have been ongoing for the last year and a half.

“The discussions have gone on for the last year, year and a half, about how do we broaden it so we provide a health environment that doctors want to come to. So that means we got to recruit diagnostic imaging people, we got to recruit nurses, the whole package. As we re-did the terms of reference, that’s how we broadened it. We look at it holistically instead of just as a component,” he said.

The objective of the committee is to provide support for health professionals’ attraction and retention. It also aims to enhance retention of health professionals and facilitate community involvement in the attraction process while also sharing information on the state of health care. 

Membership of the committee will include both voting and non-voting members. Voting members shall consist of Town and Municipal District of Bonnyville Council representatives, the Bonnyville Health Foundation member and the health care provider representative (medical director). 

Non-voting members shall consist of the Rural Health Professions Action Plan rural community consultant, the hospital administrator, a primary care network member and the emergency medical services lead (BRFA Chief).

Council approved the terms of reference.

Read more: Alberta focuses on health care

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Christian Apostolovski
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