The City of Kamloops has clarified its approach to the way it hopes to recruit doctors to become family practitioners.

According to data from the province, External Relations Liason Sarah Candido says roughly 41,000 Kamloops residents are not attached to a family doctor.

“The number is over 53,000 if we include surrounding communities such as Sun Peaks and Barriere.”

While providing an update on the recruitment efforts thus far, Candido says they are exploring a number of other options, including tax and benefit incentives to entice doctors to the city.

However, Candido explains recruitment efforts are not focused within the province itself.

“We do not want to pull a doctor from Chase to Kamloops. We do not want to pull a doctor from Clearwater to here; that is not the recruitment effort underway in Kamloops. It is more of a ‘how can we get people here from Ireland, how can we get people here from South Africa?'”

She says the city has met with local companies on the idea of creating spaces for doctors to establish offices.

“We had a local business interested in expanding, come to the table and have a conversation about what that might look like; they would be about two to three years out.”

Meanwhile, Candido says they recognize that administrative burdens are a huge cost for doctors trying to establish their own practice.

“Those costs can take an upward of 30 per cent of the fee they get per patient. As of 2021, family doctors in British Columbia had the third lowest gross income in the country with only Ontario and Newfoundland physicians making less.”

However, she council the idea of direct cash payments to doctors is off the table, as it’s not legal.

“The community charter under which B.C. municipalities are governed, states that municipalities cannot provide direct subsidies to business and since family physician offices are for profit, this does include them,” she said.

“Legally, it can also be challenging to keep a physician in place under this sort of agreement if they need to move elsewhere for family or health reasons outside of the city’s control.”

Candido adds that ensuring the city is as “physician friendly as possible” for doctors opening their own practice is a top priority.

Administration will bring another report to council later this year on an update on the City of Kamloops family physician recruitment efforts.

-With Files from Abby Zieverink