The FlowerstoneHealth Society, which operates a non-profit nurse practitioner-led model health care facility in Qualicum Beach, is seeking some financial assistance from the town to help recruit more nursing staff.
The chair of the society, Rosemary Graham, appeared as a delegation at the Qualicum Beach councils regular meeting on June 26. She informed council that since they opened in 2020, during the midst of the COVID-19, it has been an uphill climb with many lessons learned.
To date, the clinic serves 4,000 local residents and Graham indicated they have the capacity to up that number to approximately 7,500.
Currently, Flowerstone has only five nurse practitioners but Graham said they have the capacity to accommodate nine nurse practitioners or physicians.
Flowerstone have relied mainly on Central Island Division of Family Practice, the Primary Network and Island Health to assist them with the recruitment of nurse practitioners or physicians. They have had five since 2020, lost two but were able to replace them.
"Most of the people we have replaced are novice nurse practitioners," said Graham. "We have not been able to recruit or attract more experienced nurse practitioners. Unfortunately, since these efforts haven't been effective for us, we need to do something different. We all know that doing more of the same is not going to affect a change."
Graham said they're now asking the town to assist Flowerstone in their efforts to hire four more nurse practitioners. They are requesting the town to provide $10,000 to help cover their aggressive recruitment campaign, that will be led by the Flowerstone board and its clinicians.
"We plan to increase exposure to our clinic opportunities by promoting the clinic at universities and at conferences where both experienced and novice NPs or physicians attend," said Graham. "We'd like to advise them of the job opportunities at our wonderful clinic and in our community, which we're very proud of."
The $10,000 Flowerstone is requesting will help finance the cost of branded materials, table rental, travel and cost of personnel.
"While that sounds steep for recruitment, the cost of a table at a conference is about $4,000 to $5,000," said Graham. "The majority of the expense, would then be the cost of the tables at conferences, promotional materials would be about $1,000 and then there's travel expenses that would be associated with that."
Graham said this is a community-owned clinic everyone should be proud of. They are asking the leaders of the community to contribute to their recruitment campaign.
"A new initiative to help solve some of the desperate problems in health care," said Graham. "We recognize that there's lessons learned, but we also have an opportunity for our community to collaborate on many levels and make a difference"
Coun. Petronella Vander Valk said Flowerstone serves residents from all over District 69 and asked if they have approached the City of Parksville and the electoral areas in the Regional District of Nanaimo.
Graham indicated this is their first request and will approach other jurisdictions for funding assistance as well. They aim to have a full complement of nine nurse practitioners by the end of the year.
Council directed staff to come up with a report on financial options for the Flowerstone funding requests.
The Flowerstone Family Health Clinic is located at 744A Memorial Ave. in Qualicum Beach. Patients can book virtual appointments with nurse practitioners Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In-person and same-day, team-based primary care appointments are available when necessary.
