Researcher calls for rural health investment after Dawson Creek's only ob-gyn leaves community

For nine weeks, the residents of Dawson Creek, B.C., have been without a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology.

The most recent obstetrician-gynecologist (ob-gyn) left the small northern community this spring, and although there are some alternatives, anyone with high-risk needs now has to drive one hour north to Fort St. John.

The Northern Health Authority said it is actively recruiting to fill the vacant position, which served the census area of about 17,000 people.

It said anyone who needs care can contact the Chickadee Clinic in Dawson Creek, a maternity clinic with nurses, midwives and doctors who can support families through pregnancy and postpartum. For those with more serious needs, they'll have to go further afield.

This comes as B.C. faces a shortage of health-care workers throughout the province.

Jude Kornelsen, co-director of the University of B.C. Centre for Rural Health Research, said there is an "urgent" need to fill the gaps locally when health-care services like obstetrics become unavailable in rural and remote areas.

"However, it's a really difficult time in health care right now," she told CBC's Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk.

For the past several months, the province has been running a campaign to attract U.S. doctors and nurses to B.C., and fast-track the process for some health-care providers from other jurisdictions to become registered to practice in British Columbia.

But even so, physicians are still retiring or moving on, and thousands of British Columbians remain without a general practitioner, let alone specialist care.

Dawson Creek's most recent ob-gyn left this spring, after arriving in the community in July 2024. The ob-gyn before that spent about two years in Dawson Creek, according to Northern Health.

Kornelsen said communities with smaller populations tend to require specialist care during pregnancy less often — because there are fewer people who would need it — and can have great experiences with family physicians and midwives.

Having specialists in rural communities can actually be challenging, she said, if they don't have enough work to sustain a practice.

But if they do, they often have so much that it leads to burnout.

"It's not sustainable for one provider to shoulder the responsibility of all high-risk care, namely because they're on call pretty much all the time," Kornelsen said. "I've talked to many solo obstetricians across rural communities and they basically say that to have time off, they have to leave the community, otherwise they feel compelled to help out if needed."

A rural locum ob-gyn program does exist, bringing physicians to communities for the short term. On July 8, there were job postings for ob-gyns for both Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.

"We definitely need to strengthen the locum program to make sure that the providers we have in communities can get a rest," Kornelsen said.

She said there has also been an effort to support family doctors with "enhanced surgical skills" so they can perform low-risk procedures. When it comes to pregnancy and birth, that would include things like C-sections on patients who don't have significant complications, she said.

"They could be available to do emergency caesarean sections locally, which means that those birthers who will probably have uncomplicated delivery can stay in the community to give birth with the reassurance that if complications arise, they can be looked after safely."

But, she said, health authorities should be investing in more team-based care, because it's not just the ob-gyn performing deliveries, it's nurses and other health-care workers, too.

Additionally, there needs to be more money put toward infrastructure for medical services in those communities.

"We have to have continued investment," she said.