Northern Health says they have found a potential new family physician.
“We, along with a local council member, have interviewed two Practice Ready Assessment (PRA) candidates,” writes Northern Health in their December Health Services Update. “The candidate should be joining us in Spring 2027.”
The PRA program is an accelerated pathway for internationally trained family physicians to get licensed in Canada, and results in a return of service commitment of three years in the community.
In addition, they say, they have posted a job opening for a nurse practitioner for Tumbler Ridge. “[This is a] first for TR—to strengthen care and support in the Emergency Department. A Nurse Practitioner will be able to work in the Emergency Department and this will expand the number and type of health care professionals working in the community.”
Northern Health says they continue to engage with Tumbler Ridge community leaders and to work closely with regional physicians and health leadership, “to explore solutions that will help address our medical staff recruitment challenges. We are exploring ways to innovate and stabilize services in a sustainable manner and improve access to health services, with a strong focus on expanding primary care.”
That includes meeting with mayor and council and other community members to share updates and hear concerns. “Together, we reviewed local health service utilization data and Northern Health informed the group that we’re going to explore moving to seven-day-per-week, 10-hours-per-day walk-in emergency services as physician recruitment stabilizes to best match volume and demand. They have now requested a meeting with the full council to go over the material with a larger group of municipal providers.”
While this model would increase coverage from the current model (from 55 hours per week currently, with coverage Monday to Friday 8 am to 7 pm, to 70 hours per week), it would still leave the lion’s share of hours (98 hours per week) without access to the local emergency room.
“We want to reassure you that 24/7 emergency services remain available,” they write. “Ambulance transfers occur because higher-level care is needed, such as surgical consultation, additional diagnostic tests, etc. There are EHS ambulances ready to treat and transport patients to higher levels of care.”
They say a new advanced care paramedic ambulance based in Dawson Creek will be available for calls in the area that require a higher level of care.
“Local health leadership continues to take part in the Tumbler Ridge Healthcare Taskforce meeting regularly. These meetings are an important chance for Northern Health to listen, discuss, share, and plan for health care services in the community. At the December meeting, discussions focused on physician recruitment, and how to gain a better understanding of what attracts physicians to Tumbler Ridge and why some do not stay, including locums. The group also explored strategies to bring back resident student physicians in January/February to support future recruitment and talked about the feasibility of offering some services on the weekend.”
The good news, says Northern Health, is wait times to see a primary care provider at the Primary Care Clinic have improved, thanks to having patients book with any provider. “The wait time is often as low as one day, whereas waiting to see your attached provider could mean a longer wait time.”
And they’ve managed to secure the assistance of locums who are able to rotate into the community. “Their support of our local teams has made a significant difference in access to primary care.” They say that daytime services in the emergency department have become more stable, with no service interruptions due to staffing in November. “This is a positive step compared to previous periods: from September to November 2024, there were 25 interruptions to either daytime or after-hours services; during September to November 2025, there were just two daytime service interruptions.”
Even so, Northern Health say that even two diversions is too many, and that they are committed to reducing these interuptions even further. “Average monthly ER visits remain steady at about eight per day, similar to the past two years, and many of the visits have shifted to the daytime hours when local providers are available. We’re pleased to share that, at this time, there are no anticipated physician-related Emergency Department service interruptions in December.”
When the emergency department was operating 24/7, nurses were often unable to work during the day because they were called in at night. “Now that the on-call rotation for nursing is more stable and does not require overnight calls, nursing primary care appointments are now easier to book. Registered Nurse care coordination and aging in place supports have all increased. And thanks to the stable schedules, there is now the ability to provide educational development and training for Registered Nurses, and to support public health services (such as immunizations, instead of waiting for other visiting Northern Health staff to provide these services), home support contracts, and in-home equipment support.
“Northern Health remains committed to working with local community leadership, health professionals, and residents in Tumbler Ridge, to improve health care access in your community. We’ll keep sharing updates as we move forward—thank you for your ongoing support and collaboration.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
