An aerial view of Royal Inland Hospital. (Photo via MP Frank Caputo/Facebook)
The Kamloops-area Member of Parliament is hoping to use his voice to attract healthcare professionals to his riding.
While healthcare is a provincial responsibility, Frank Caputo says he came with the idea for a recruitment video after hearing from a number of his constituents who said they were without a family doctor.
“We’d talk about the role for federal legislation and health transfers and frankly I just got tired of saying that,” Caputo said, on NL Mornings. “It felt like I wasn’t really doing anything, so I decided ‘you know what? let’s start a campaign and try and get some doctors here.'”
The 90-second video features testimonials from three healthcare workers as well as Caputo, who all tout the benefits of living in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo.
“I’m trying to show people what it is about Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo that I love,” Caputo added.
“There is a reason why we love where we work and where we live and I want to show people that. I’ve taken a couple of doctors through Kamloops in the past and its a really easy sell to be honest with you.”
Join my initiative to recruit physicians and healthcare professionals to our community.
Please share this video highlighting our region’s natural beauty and the collaborative spirit of our medical professionals.
Our joint effort will help attract family physicians to KTC. pic.twitter.com/B59GOlMKrL
— Frank Caputo MP (@FrankCaputoKTC) May 14, 2024
While he’s not sure if the campaign will attract new healthcare professionals to the area, Caputo said he wanted to do something to try to address the longstanding issue.
While he’s not sure if the campaign will be successful, Caputo said he wanted to get the message out to prospective recruits in order to try to address the longstanding issue.
“To me, success will be simply doing our job and showing people that I want to attract more doctors,” Caputo said. “I’ve often said, if you’re a physician and you want to come to Kamloops and you’re looking at it, I will meet you at the airport, I will take you on a tour, and I will buy you lunch, and we’ll go from there.”
He told Radio NL the video cost about $4,500 to produce and that it was paid for out of his Parliamentary budget.
