Prince George

Prince George is the centre of business, education, health and culture for northern British Columbia and services a rural population of about 300,000. The region’s economic growth and diversification strategies are creating outstanding opportunities for investors, employers and employees. Affordable housing, land prices and transportation costs, due to short and quick commutes; result in one of the lowest costs of living for a city of its size in the province. Additionally, wage rates fall above provincial averages, providing residents of Prince George with a high standard of living in one of BC’s most beautiful regions. The city itself is the 4th largest in British Columbia and has a population of approximately 82,300 local residents and a service centre for nearly 320,000. It is built on the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers. Prince George is the home of the University of Northern British Columbia – Canada’s Green university. The warm, friendly and diverse population attests to a strong and dynamic community spirit. https://www.northernhealth.ca/our-communities/prince-george

Practice Details:

Join a collegial team of General Pediatricians at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) in Prince George, British Columbia. One of the members of the Department of Pediatrics is an experienced Pediatric Cardiologist, providing the region with a highly valued skill set.

Prince George is the regional referral centre for northern British Columbia, and is affiliated with the Northern Medical Program of the University of British Columbia (UBC). The Department of Pediatric members are University of British Columbia (UBC) clinical faculty. The UHNBC group of eight general pediatricians serves a geographical area of approximately 600,000 km and a population of approximately 400,000. This hospital has a state-of-the-art Level II B NICU with twelve single rooms, which include sleeping space for parents (single room neonatal care). The successful applicant must be competent in Level II B neonatal intensive care. The UHNBC Pediatric ward has twelve rooms with sleeping space for parents. Neonatal emergencies and general pediatric emergencies make night call moderately busy (this is 'home call' so the pediatrician does not remain in the hospital all night). The pediatricians take turns serving as the Attending Pediatrician for the Pediatric and Neonatal ICU Clinical Teaching Unit for one week at a time (having most night shifts covered by the other pediatricians). The pediatricians have hospital-based clinics (in the UHNBC Pediatric Ambulatory Care Clinic) for patients with diabetes and asthma, and for teaching clinics with trainees. Pediatric patients receive chemotherapy or infusions (of immunologic medications, blood products, etc) in the clinic. In addition, the Pediatric Ambulatory Care Clinic houses many subspecialist visiting clinics from BC Children’s Hospital (including respirology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, nephrology, hematology, medical genetics). UHNBC has an adolescent inpatient psychiatry unit where patients over the age of 12 are admitted under the care of psychiatrists. The UHNBC Maternal Child areas (the Pediatrics, Neonatal ICU and Labor & Delivery/Maternity wards) support family centred, culturally safe health care.

There are opportunities for pediatricians interested in specialized work, including Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect/child maltreatment, Eating Disorders, Complex Developmental / Behavioral Conditions, and Autism assessments. An interest or expertise in any of these areas would be an asset. In addition, there is the potential for outreach / visiting general pediatric clinics in more rural, remote communities around northern BC, including in some First Nations/reserve communities. The Prince George Child Development Centre serves children with special needs and is staffed by pediatric occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech language therapists. There is a community-based multidisciplinary Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Clinic, and two community-based mental health centres for children and youth. The Prince George Foundry provides medical and mental health services for youth aged 12 to 26 years. The successful applicant will be involved in teaching UBC Northern Medical Program medical students, Prince George Family Practice residents, UBC Prince George Psychiatry residents and UBC Pediatric residents. The successful applicant can establish their own private practice, or there may be opportunity to join an existing pediatric practice. Consultations are abundant. There are numerous opportunities for physicians to become leaders, to pursue clinical research and/or to develop Quality Improvement initiatives within Northern Health, and there is the infrastructure to support this.

Income can come from different sources: fee-for-service (topped up by a rural retention premium), sessional payments for work in some specialized clinics, MOCAP/on call payment, payment for teaching and NITAOP funding (which covers the cost of travel to provide outreach clinics to rural communities). There is a generous continuing medical education allowance from Northern Health, in addition to that provided by Doctors of BC.

The range of pathology seen by the pediatricians in Prince George is great, the medicine is exciting, the support from colleagues is assured and the community is welcoming. Prince George is a wonderful place to settle with easy access to the outdoors and a very reasonable cost of living. The pediatricians hope to find a passionate, committed community Pediatrician who will join the department and who will contribute to improving the quality of life of the children and youth of northern BC.

Qualifications:

• Eligible for Fellowship with the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC)

Call Schedule:

Hours of work: regular
On call requirements: 1:7

Compensation:

University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC):

The University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) is the largest Acute Care facility within the Northern Health region, and a hub for specialized health services. It’s also a teaching hospital:
• Provides undergraduate physician training through the Northern Medical Program, run by the University of British Columbia and University of Northern British Columbia
• Hosts residents in UBC’s Family Practice Residency Program
• Is a key clinical education site for nursing and many health sciences students at UNBC, the College of New Caledonia,
BCIT and other institutions. UHNBC has benefited from nearly $100 million in expansions, renovations and new equipment since 2001:
• Patient care addition with an expanded emergency room
and updated ICU
• State-of-the-art maternal-child care centre (including a single room neonatal ICU)
• Facilities to accommodate undergraduate physician training
• MRI unit

UHNBC is also home to a cancer centre for Northern BC, featuring a wide range of cancer treatments including radiation therapy.