The Town of Bonnyville has agreed to provide loans to new doctor recruits. The town implemented a Doctor Recruitment Program last year, and since its introduction six new doctors have joined the Bonnyville Hospital.
Bonnyville’s Mayor, Gene Sobolewski, says it’s not as easy as it would seem for doctors to move to the area, “basically, especially the ones from overseas, they come and they literally have nothing.” The Mayor continues, “there’s no line of credits, there’s nothing they can do,” to secure funding and establish themselves in the community.
Mayor Sobolewski says it’s important for the town to be able to not only attract, but retain doctors, which is why they developed a loan system, “what we do is we seed loans to them, so that they can look at down payments on homes and pick up loans for cars, in other words become intro-graded in the community.”
“Between ourselves, the MD, and The Hospital Foundation we are each providing a $50 000 loan for these individuals such that they can get established,” Mayor Sobolewski explains, “that’s part of the success of this program.”
Mayor Sobolewski doesn’t know if the town will ever see “this type of surge (of doctors recruited) again.” But notes that it is successful in it’s partnership, between The Municipal District of Bonnyville and The Health Foundation, “the fact that we are all doing this together speaks volumes.”
There will also be a Doctor Recruitment Golf Tournament June 12th at The Bonnyville Golf & Country Club to help raise funds for the loans.