Photo: Interior Health
A shortage of eye doctor and surgeon sub-specialists in B.C. is leaving critical gaps in rural healthcare. One doctor has warned that low-pay and heavy workloads are making recruitment increasingly difficult.
Trail ophthamologist Marius Scheepers said the emphasis on lucrative procedures has impacted other ophthalmology sub-specialties, such as pediatric ophthalmology, neuro-ophthalmology and ocular oncology.
“We’re trying to decide, should we actually be trying to train the doctors better, the specialists before they come out, to be more comprehensive?”
Ophthalmologists, who Scheepers said get a bit of extra training before to be able to go and work in more rural areas, need more of an incentive to do so.
“I think that a lot of doctors have needed to go to a big city for their training, and I think a lot of them want to remain in a big city,” he said.
Scheepers added that despite his advertising efforts put towards enticing ophthalmologists to come train and work in the Kootenays, there are very few applicants.
“We had only two applicants,” he said, adding that one moved on to a place that was better suited for them.
“We had one Canadian applicant, and that’s kind of problematic. I’m concerned that when I wind down my practice, that it’s going to be potentially challenging to recruit another ophthalmologist to the area.”
This has worsened existing gaps in rural healthcare, he added.
Another major issue is the limited financial incentives and competition between practices, making it difficult to attract new specialists to rural communities.
“We only have one ocular oncologist in all of British Columbia, Dr. Katharine Paton, and she cannot find anyone to replace her,” said Scheepers.
“Again, I think it’s because that work takes so much out of you and is not nearly as well remunerated.”
Despite this, Interior Health announced last month that they would be expanding oncology and renal health services at the East Kootenay Regional Hospital (EKRH) as part of a business plan for a new two-floor building in Cranbrook.
Scheepers said that low pay and heavy workloads have led to recruitment struggles, adding that while the problem has intensified in recent years, it didn’t happen overnight.
“It has gradually become a reality,” he said. “People are becoming a bit more hyper-specialized. It’s problematic in ophthalmology because we have too few ophthalmologists who perform glaucoma surgeries.
“They are overwhelmed.”
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