B.C. city buys health clinic to help community retain and recruit new doctors – CBC

Dawson Creek looks at team care to serve the needs of the community

Mar 27, 2025

A group of doctors in British Columbia’s northeast, with the help of city council, has saved a clinic from closure — and now has its sights set on bringing team-based care to a region where many people are without a family doctor.

In July 2024, Dawson Creek, a city of about 12,000 near the B.C.-Alberta border, purchased the Eljen Medical Clinic.

Mayor Darcy Dober said when the owner of the clinic put it up for sale, local physicians worried about the community’s loss of medical care.

“They also had a vision for a Primary Care Network,” he said.

The South Peace Division of Family Practice, a community-based group of family doctors that serves Dawson Creek and the nearby communities of Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge, proposed the city purchase the clinic at a time when much of the province — but especially northern and rural communities — were dealing with years-long shortages of health-care staff.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/dawson-creek-health-clinic-1.7481933