Two doctors will leave the Wild Rose Medical Centre before the fall.Dr. Deon Vorster, who has worked at the clinic for a decade and was not available for comment, will resign his general practice position at the centre in September.Dr. Johann Van Der Vyver, who has practised at the clinic for eight years, will retire from his practice at the centre in August.He will continue to provide long-term care to residents in the Olds Hospital and Care Centre's long-term care facility as well as baby delivery, anesthesia and emergency room services at the hospital.Van Der Vyver is also the owner of the DermaNuva Skin and Health Care clinic in Olds and he will continue to work out of that office as well.In an interview with the Olds Albertan, Van Der Vyver said he decided to retire from his primary practice to spend more time with his family.“No. 1, I've got virtually no family life,” he said. “You can imagine, if you do all these things in one, there is no time for anyone else, or myself. And I think my family even comes a little bit before myself because you come home and your kids ask you ‘Dad, when are we doing this and when are we doing that?' and you're always saying next day or next week but next week comes and it doesn't happen.”Currently, Van Der Vyver said he spends 60 per cent of his working time at the hospital, 25 per cent at the DermaNuva clinic and 15 per cent at the medical centre and the amount of hours he is putting in at all three locations, along with the paperwork that results from those hours, has made it a challenge to focus attention on his wife and two adopted children.Even taking vacations, he added, means coming back to a scenario where he is “flooded” with work.Van Der Vyver, who came to Olds in the summer of 2006, said he has a patient load of roughly 500 and he is telling his patients of his impending departure from the medical centre in handwritten notes.“I've been essentially telling them that I trust that we will have new physicians joining and becoming part of the Wild Rose clinic in the fall and in the early winter so that they will have a family physician to attach themselves to.”He added that in the interim, he is telling patients that they'll have to approach physicians that have openings for patients or attend the centre's walk-in clinic for care once he retires.As expected, Van Der Vyver said, his patients are not happy about the news of his departure.But some physicians are coming in for temporary or locum work at the medical centre, he said, and he has faith in the efforts of local doctors and the Olds Physician Attraction and Retention Committee to bring in new full-time doctors.“I think between Mel Giles (the committee's chair) and the whole organization in this town of recruitment, they've done an excellent job. The way that they welcome, show people, tell them about what this community offers, it is actually a surprise to me,” Van Der Vyver said.Giles said the committee, which supports the recruitment efforts of doctors at the medical centre by showing prospective doctors the community, has given as many as nine physicians tours of the town in the past five months.“We've had one doctor tour from Ireland but she chose not to come after all was said and done,” he said. “We've had several young doctors, Albertans, that have approached us and we've toured them. Man and wife doctors and they're in the process of making up their minds right now as to whether they're going to come.”He added one physician is already in town on a locum, where a doctor practises in a location for a temporary period as a way to “test drive” a community, and three more have committed to check out Olds between now and the fall.“We're still waiting for more.”The committee has also announced that Dr. Nico Marais, who is currently practising obstetrics and gynecology in Red Deer, will begin practising gynecology at the Olds hospital on July 1.Marais did not respond before press time to a request for an interview.Giles said Alberta Health Services has a recruiting group based in Red Deer that gets in touch with doctors who are potentially interested in setting up shop here.The group forwards the resumes of potential doctors to the Wild Rose Medical Centre and doctors there review the resumes and decide, based on an assessment of a potential doctor's skill set, if they want to invite interested physicians to the community for a tour.As for finding replacements for Van Der Vyver and Vorster, Alberta Health Services will have to carry out a needs assessment to see if replacement is necessary but Giles said he is confident that need is there.He added currently there are four general practitioner spaces that are open for filling at the medical centre—two more could potentially open once Van Der Vyver and Vorster leave— and overall, he wants to see a total community physician roster of 17.Once Van Der Vyver and Vorster leave, there will be roughly 11 doctors in the community.Giles also said Olds' main needs are in the areas of anesthesia and obstetrics.He said he is not concerned about attracting and retaining the doctors Olds needs since the community is in an attractive location near Calgary and Red Deer.“I think we're in a very good position and I'm really optimistic that we're going to reach our complement probably by September, October,” he said. “And then we've got to encourage them to stay.”Olds mayor Judy Dahl said she is also confident the departure of Van Der Vyver and Vorster will not hurt the community.“I do know that with our proactive Olds Physician Attraction and Retention Committee, they're extremely busy and working all the time to be bringing people in and out and touring around the community,” she said. “And I know there are some real great names on the horizon that they have that are pretty sure that they're going to relocate but just haven't signed the dotted line.”The Peak to Prairies Primary Care Network, which serves the communities of Olds and Sundre, declined to comment on the departure of the two [email protected]
