Dawson Creek wins RCCBC award for rural healthcare innovation

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — The City of Dawson Creek is being recognized with an award for showing “outstanding leadership and innovation” in the rural healthcare space.

The city has been named the winner of the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s (RCCBC) “Rural BC Community Award,” an annual award presented every spring by the agency.

“Through a series of collaborative initiatives, the community has enhanced access to quality care for patients while easing the burden physicians and other health professionals carry,” RCCBC’s announcement reads.

Those initiatives include the Chickadee Maternity Collaborative maternity care clinic, Bulterys Patient House, a wheelchair-accessible temporary living space for people staying in the city for temporary medical care, and a locum house for temporary healthcare workers.

“By offering comfortable, private, and secure accommodations to visiting physicians, we are actively fostering an environment that encourages medical professionals to serve our community,” said Fanni De Mayo, the coordinator for the South Peace Division of Family Practice, which runs the locum house.

“These initiatives stand as a testament to Dawson Creek’s collaborative spirit and innovative mindset.”

The South Peace Division of Family Care, a group of healthcare workers from Dawson Creek, Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge, says it’s working to recruit and hire more doctors and nurses for the area.

The organization is also planning to turn Dawson Creek’s Ejen Healthcare Clinic into a “primary care hub” for the entire South Peace region, and it’s working alongside Northern Health to make it happen.

RCCBC has also presented two more awards to individual healthcare workers based out of Cowichan and Fruitvale.