Rural Locum recruitment

​​Are you looking for a locum to provide short-term or long-term coverage? VCH can help you in your search with the option of online recruitment and placing an advertisement with Health Match BC and our VCH Medical Staff Website

In addition to online recruitment, those Specialists and General Practitioners who reside in a Rural Practice Subsidiary Agreement (RSA) community are eligible to access the Rural Locums in BC program. The programs and communities that are eligible are:

Rural GP Locum Program (RGPLP)

With seven or fewer physicians and a minimum of approx. 105 km away from a major medical centre

  • Bella Bella

  • Bella Coola

  • Pemberton

Rural GP Anesthesia Locum Program (RGPALP)

Sunshine Coast, Whistler, Squamish might be eligible if they meet the following criteria as a community:

  • Have a Health Authority Physician Supply Plan approved by the Ministry of Health that requires the GPA service in the community.

  • Have seven or fewer GPA physicians who maintain hospital privileges and provide on-call support to anesthesia services in the community.

  • Not be eligible for the Rural GP Locum Program (RGPLP).

  • Be more than 70 kilometres from a nearby major medical centre where either specialists or GPs provide similar specialty services.

Rural Specialist Locum Program (RSLP)

The Joint Standing Committee (JSC) has approved Powell River on a list of RSA communities and specialties (subject to meeting other eligibility criteria) that can use the RSLP:

There must be less than five (5) physicians who maintain hospital privileges and provide on-call support in that specialty service in the community.

  • Specialties: Anesthesia, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Psychiatry and Radiology. ​

Locums for ​​Rural BC

Locums for Rural BC provides full support and assistance to physicians and specialists practicing in rural communities so they can take reasonable periods of leave from their practices for continuing medical education (CME), vacation, and health needs.

Full support and assistance with placement and travel to rural communities throughout British Columbia is also provided to locum physicians. Where there is a vacancy in the physician supply plan that is causing serious health care service access problems and/or an unreasonable workload being placed on a host physician, the health authority may request Locums for Rural BC to facilitate locum coverage.

Services:

  • Assist host physicians with requests for locum assistance.

  • Assist locum physicians in completing the application process.

  • Collaborate with health authorities in facilitating hospital privileges for locum physicians.

  • Make all travel arrangements for flights, car rental, and accommodations.

  • Provide an interactive website where host physicians can post locum opportunities, and locum physicians can review and request placement.

  • Obtain confidential feedback from both locums and host physicians upon completion of an assignment.

To place a posting online for locum recruitment please:

  1. Fill out the questionnaire for your locum requirement on Health Match BC and VCH Medical Staff website. An online posting is required for reporting to the Ministry for VCH and access to any eligible rural benefits as defined in the Rural Programs Booklet​.​​

  2. If you are an​ RSA eligible community listed above and would like to submit an application for Locums for Rural BC assistance, please fill out the following application: 

  3. ​Sen​d the completed questionnaire and if applying to the  Locums for Rural BC program, the completed application to Julia Bougourd via email at:  julia.bougourd​@vch.ca

If you have any questions you can reach Julia Bougourd by phone at 236-983-3085​ or email: julia.bougourd@vch.ca​

To learn more about the Rural Locums Programs, please see the links below:

​​