Chamber helps recruit deputy chief medical officer

Chamber played role in recruiting deputy chief medical officer
Published Wednesday July 1, 2009
By Shawn Berry
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com


The first initiative in the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce's doctor-recruitment effort appears to be paying off.

Dr. Paul Van Buynder, the new deputy chief medical officer of health recruited to New Brunswick from Australia, is one of the first physicians to benefit from meeting members of the chamber president's committee on physician recruitment.

When a doctor expresses interest in moving to Fredericton, two committee members offer to meet and show the physician around the city, focusing on his or her interests and those of family members.

Van Buynder is one of two doctors that members of the welcoming committee have met with in recent months to show them the benefits the region has to offer.

While it wasn't the main reason Van Buynder chose to practise in New Brunswick, the meeting with members of the doctor recruitment committee certainly had an impact.

"It was not the critical part, but it was an important part in my decision," Van Buynder said.

He touched down in Fredericton on April 1 in a snowstorm.

The city was a far cry from Perth, Australia, the city of 1.3 million people that he was considering leaving.

"My initial feeling was this may be challenging," he said. "Was this something I wanted to move across the world for?"

Compared to where he lived and worked in Australia, Fredericton was small and rural.

And while discussions with the province and the health regions were most important, he said the recruitment committee's efforts helped put a face on the community.

"They certainly took a small town in a blizzard and turned it around so I could see it wasn't small or isolated, and that I could see some cultural enjoyment here," Van Buynder said.

"The information from the province and the committee about the locale, the availability of outdoor activity, the culture and the progressiveness of the city, the central wi-fi, they all elevated Fredericton from a small town in the bush, to a town that might not have same population but that had the same vertical lifestyle as if I went to a larger Canadian city."

Van Buynder said meetings with provincial and regional health officials about their vision for health care in the province and the role he could play in the system were the main considerations.

Anthony Knight, CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, said knowing the chamber's effort played a role in bringing Van Buynder to the province is gratifying.

"We thought the charm of Frederictonians would play a role in attracting physicians to the city. This shows we're on the right track, and that we should continue to put our people out front to explain why Fredericton is a great place to live and work," Knight said.

While the committee was initially created to focus on family physicians, he said he's glad it played a role in this case and the committee will help whenever it can to recruit doctors to the province.