Through a collaborative approach to provide relief to over 4000 people in the Bulkley Valley who don't have a doctor, the Pacific Northwest Division of Family Practice has opened a new clinic for people on a waitlist to get access to a nurse practitioner as well as "unattached patients".

The Divisions of Family Practice initiative is sponsored by the Family Practice Services Committee, a joint committee of the BC Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC. BC's Ministry of Health launched a new strategy called the Health Human Resources Strategy in 2017 to tackle the ongoing healthcare worker shortage crisis in the province. The strategy envisions a health system that puts people first — fostering workforce satisfaction and innovation to ensure health-care services are accessible to everybody in BC.

This strategy includes acknowledging and breaking the cycle of racism within the healthcare system, accessing new prescriptions by B.C. Pharmacists, updating acknowledgment of internationally trained healthcare workers, and providing access to doctors and nurse practitioners through clinics and virtually.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and other national and international agencies predict a growing global shortage of health-care workers over the next decade, and the World Bank estimates that by 2030, 65 million people worldwide will work in health care but there will still be a gap of 15 million workers.

In Smithers, a new clinic called the Valley Health Centre opened its doors to the public in July. Cormac Hikisch is the Health Service Administrator for Northern Health. He said "The primary care network steering group that's been working really hard on the Primary Care Clinic for quite some time. The group feels that a primary care clinic approach with nurse practitioner-led attachment was a key principle, along with the ability for the unattached clinic to provide access to people who didn't yet couldn't yet find a health provider."

The Valley Heath Centre currently has two nurse practitioners on staff as well as a dietician, physiotherapist and community pharmacist.

Another clinic has been opened in Witset, a community of mostly Wet'suwet'en people that is 33 kilometers from Smithers and 35 kilometers from The Wrinch Memorial Hospital in Hazleton. The need for a community care centre is integral to the health of the 750 to 800 people who live in Witset.

Wanda Nikal, Community Health Representative at the Witset Clinic explained some of its operations, saying "We are looking for a Nurse Practitioner for Witset .. also the Nurse Practitioners from the Primary Care Center in Smithers have been coming out every Tuesday bi weekly and and that's been working out great for our community. But I can't wait to tell we have a Nurse Practitioner here daily because we have a lot of unattached people, including myself and my daughter. Our doctor retired last summer, so we are unattached. So we'd be going into the Primary Care Centre and being attached to one of the nurse practitioners."

To listen to the full interview with Cormac Hikisch and Wanda Nikal, listen in the link below.