Two more doctors will soon be practising out of the primary care clinic inside the Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre.
According to Northern Health, one of the doctors has already arrived in Burns Lake while the other will arrive shortly.
With the new addition, a total of four doctors will be working out of the hospital’s primary care clinic, bringing the total number of doctors in Burns Lake to nine (7.25 full-time equivalency).
“We now will have the recommended number of physicians for the size of our population, meaning shorter wait times to see a doctor in Burns Lake and better health care for our residents,” said Burns Lake Mayor Chris Beach.
Beach said the new recruits were in part thanks to the efforts of the Burns Lake Sustainability Project, a group that has been working toward recruiting health-care professionals to the community. The group has also proposed the creation of an “ambassador committee,” which would help the new recruits feel right at home.
Earlier this year, two doctors - Dr. Tammy Williams and Dr. Charl Badenhorst - started working out of the hospital’s primary care clinic. Before their arrival, Burns Lake’s $55-million hospital had a primary care clinic up and running with no physicians.
Dr. Badenhorst told Lakes District News earlier this summer that Burns Lake residents should be proud of their hospital.
“For me, this is a six-star hospital,” he said. “I think the facility and the people are excellent, and the community can be happy that we have a facility like that.”