The local physician recruitment and retention committee may dissolve after a doctor who received a bursary from them will not be coming to the Town of Athabasca. Coun.
The local physician recruitment and retention committee may dissolve after a doctor who received a bursary from them will not be coming to the Town of Athabasca.
Coun. Nichole Adams, a member of the committee, said the Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee and its partners gave Andrew Spencer a bursary of about $20,000 to help him complete his schooling.
“We had donations from business owners as well as the MD of Opportunity, (Athabasca) County and the Town of Athabasca, so it was a joint venture, ” Adams said.
In return, Spencer was scheduled to open the doors to a new local practice on Oct. 1 in Athabasca.
“The bursary is that we would pay for part of his schooling and then he would come here as soon as he finished his residency, ” said Adams. “Things happened, and now he is no longer coming here. ”
Committee chair Mabel Dick said she would not comment on why Spencer was not coming to Athabasca, but said the committee will meet early next year to decide what steps it would take regarding the money he received from the town, as well as to decide the committee's future.
“Nothing is going to be done until January, ” she said.
Adams brought up the issue at council's Nov. 1 meeting, noting that the committee would be looking at ways to get the bursary back. She also said at the meeting the committee could dissolve.
“Now that the doctor that we were in the process of recruiting is finished, there's some talk about whether or not we need to continue on trying to recruit other doctors, or whether or not we wanted to dissolve the committee, ” she said. “Because the few volunteers are not sure of whether or not they want to continue working on it. ”
The news comes a year and a half after the Town of Athabasca hosted Spencer - then in his residency in Victoria, B.C. - to meet with county council and tour the area, where it was hoped he would spend two years practicing family medicine.
At that time, Spencer's fianc ée Lindsey Fisher, who said she was a physician as well, said she was planning to move to Athabasca and begin delivering low-risk births in town. She said she was also hoping to get additional training to perform low-risk caesarean sections.
EDIT: A previous version of this story included an incorrect reason as to why Spencer would not be move to town. The Advocate apologizes for the error.
