Why one U.S. doctor is moving to Vancouver Island

The government is ramping up its multi-million-dollar campaign to lure health-care professionals from south of the border.

Dr. Muthana Yacoub has been working as a family physician in Woodland Park, Colo., for six years now.

But by November, he will be practising medicine in Colwood, B.C.

“We finally visited this past weekend and we absolutely fell in love with it,” Yacoub said.

He’ll work at a unique, city-owned clinic, which has recruited four doctors from the U.S., the U.K. and other parts of Canada.

Yacoub, who spent part of his childhood living in Toronto, already had Canadian citizenship.

He heard about the new Vancouver Island clinic while attending a medical conference in Vancouver last November, and was ready for change.

“You do see this pressure from insurance companies where you feel like you’re just kind of catering to their whims and those whims change every six months,” he explained.

“It can be extremely frustrating, because you know what you want to do for the patient, what the right thing to do for the patient is, but you have no efficacy in actually getting that done.”

The Ministry of Health is hoping more U.S. doctors feel the same as Yacoub.

The province recently began a $5-million recruitment campaign running ads in Washington State, Oregon and parts of California. This week, a branded truck was giving out free coffee to health-care workers in Seattle.

“Doctors of BC supports all efforts to address the province’s health workforce challenges,” said Dr. Charlene Lui, the organization’s president.

“It’s so important to improve timely and quality access to care for our patients.”

Lui said Doctors of BC is willing to work with the Ministry of Health and other key partners to “explore solutions for this very complex issue, including integrating foreign-trained physicians not only from the U.S., but around the globe.”

She said they are exploring questions around licensing with stakeholders.

The ministry said more than 1,600 health-care providers have expressed an interest in moving to our province. However, despite requests from CTV News, the ministry did not provide any numbers on how many doctors and nurses had actually committed to making the move.

In a statement, the ministry said: “Steps are being taken to get those interested to B.C., but this is a process that takes time.”“We are also working with our federal partners on the immigration front,” the statement added.

Yacoub said he thinks the biggest barrier for workers coming from the U.S. is “the concept of moving to a different country and the whole licensing situation.”

He also pointed out that America is facing its own family doctor shortage, particularly in rural areas.

He said despite flaws in B.C.’s health-care system, he believes it’s a much better system than the one he is currently working in.

“Even the poorest among us can get care if they need it, whereas here (in the U.S.), it’s a coin toss. They may not get their care at all,” he said, adding that someone should not face bankruptcy to get medical treatment.

Yacoub said Colwood has been very welcoming and he can’t wait to make B.C. home.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” he said.