View Royal awards grant to recruit physician
March 21, 2024
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
View Royal, BC - View Royal Council committed Tuesday to help address the shortage of maternity and primary care physicians in the Town with a $30,000 grant to the Westshore Primary Care Society (WPCS) for the rapid recruitment of a foreign-trained physician.
The funds will assist GROW Health, a View Royal family practice and maternity clinic that has lost three family physicians since 2022, to increase its patient care capacity. The clinic operates as a non-profit by WPCS.
“The shortage of primary care physicians is one of the greatest challenges facing residents of our town and region,” said Mayor Sid Tobias. “Community wellness is a town priority and with many of our residents now lacking prenatal and primary care, Council is proud to respond to WPCS’s request for funds to recruit a new physician.”
Until 2022, GROW Health had nine family physicians serving 7,200 patients, many of whom were orphaned with the loss of three doctors.
“The importance of recruiting family doctors cannot be overstated,” said WPCS president, Dr. Spencer Cleave. “It has become a regular occurrence that women are delivering babies with no prenatal care and hundreds of patients, many of them in View Royal, are now without a family doctor. We are grateful to View Royal for recognizing and helping address the urgent need.”
The grant to WPCS is one of several grants in aid View Royal Council awarded to not-for-profit organizations Tuesday. Others include the School District 61 crossing guard program for up to $50,000, $7,500 for LifeCycles Project Society, $3,000 for View Royal Out of School Care Society, $3,000 for Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, $2,500 for Vancouver Island South Film and Media Commission, $2,000 for Juan de Fuca Performing Arts Society, $725 for ReImagine West Shore Community Society, $500 each for Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable, View Royal Elementary School PAC, and Victoria Brain Injury Society, and $250 for Access West Shore Society.
View Royal’s proposed budget is open for public feedback at https://viewroyal2024.ethelo.net/ until April 1, 2024 with results to be reported to the Town’s Committee of the Whole on April 9, 2024. The proposed Financial Plan includes an overall increase of 6.4% in View Royal property tax revenue for 2024, before adding in estimated taxation from new construction. The proposed tax increase will translate to an additional $164 in property taxes for the average residential property in View Royal.
-30-
Media Contact:
Mayor Sid Tobias
250-216-5339
