B.C. mayor gets calls from across Canada about ‘crazy’ plan to recruit doctors

The mayor of the suburban Victoria community of Colwood says he’s getting calls from municipal leaders across Canada who have heard about his community’s “out-of-the-box” plan to recruit family doctors as city workers.

Mayor Doug Kobayashi announced this week that Colwood has hired its first family doctor for a city-operated medical clinic, and the community is looking to hire seven more under the first-in-Canada pilot project.

Kobayashi says some people called the plan “crazy,” but now it’s receiving interest from other communities across the country that are also suffering shortages of family medics.

He says the Colwood initiative is appealing to family doctors because recruits become part of a supportive team with a focus on well-being, rather than the business of running a clinic.

Dr. Cassandra Stiller-Moldovan will be the clinic’s first family doctor, with her family moving to Vancouver Island from London, Ont.

Stiller-Moldovan, who was shovelling snow off her driveway Friday in Ontario, says she’s looking forward to living and practising medicine on the West Coast without the extra duties of operating an office.

Stiller-Moldovan and her colleagues will work out of a city-leased medical clinic and be paid as city employees, receiving full medical benefits, vacation and a pension.

The city says the clinic’s eight doctors will ultimately provide service for 10,000 residents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2024.