The six new doctors that were successfully brought to town have nothing but thanks for the community, hospital, and committee that brought them here.
“The people have been fantastic. Everyone that we have met has been welcoming and incredibly hospitable,” said Dr. Keeve de Villiers.
De Villiers and his wife moved to town in July of 2015, coming over from South Africa. After an assessment in St. Paul, de Villiers started working at the Bonnyville Covenant Health Centre in mid-October.
“It has been fantastic,” said de Villiers, of his time in Bonnyville.
“I haven't liked that it hasn't snowed yet, but everyone else seems to be enjoying it.”
De Villiers, a general practitioner, is one of six new doctors Bonnyville has successfully recruited over the past year.
Joining him at the local hospital are Dr. Leigh-Ann Smith, Dr. Stefan Palkowski, Dr. Marli Du Toit, Dr. Jonothan Barnard and Dr. Theresa Watson.
While out in town earlier this month the doctors took a trip to the festival of trees. It was at this event where they realized the amount of effort the community has put in to get them here.
The money raised during this year's festival of trees went to the same place as it did it 2014, filling the fund for the Bonnyville doctor recruitment and retention program.
“I was just really amazed that people would be doing something like that,” said de Villiers.
“A lot of the funds raised was the money (the committee) used to help us get started here in Bonnyville. I can't tell you what an incredible difference that made.”
All of the six new doctors came to Bonnyville from South Africa over the past year. When the doctors make the move to a new country they are faced with a variety of expenses, with the biggest one being the purchase of a home.
“It is super expensive for the first while. Just paying all of the registration fees and everything else would have been next to impossible it is wasn't for the support we got from that fund, the hospital and the town,” said de Villiers.
Amazed at the work put in by members of the community to raise funds, which were for their benefit, the local doctors pitched together $1,000 and purchased a tree.
They have since donated the tree to the Bonnyville Covenant Health Centre and it has been placed downstairs in the cafeteria.
“We just wanted to give something back to the town and say thank you for helping us come here. It was just a small gesture from our side,” said de Villiers.
Smith and Palkowski are the longest tenured of the bunch having started in Bonnyville in early 2015. De Villiers and Du Toit came next, arriving in the summer and officially starting on Nov. 1.
The final two doctors, Dr. Barnard and Dr. Watson, are currently doing a three-month assessment in Westlock. The hope is for them to start at the local hospital in early 2016.
In order to get here all six doctors went through the same recruitment process, which saw them wooed by the local recruitment and retention committee.
“It was very clear from (the start) that Bonnyville was a really great place to work. It was just much nicer here than any of the other options they were offering us,” said de Villiers.
“A big part of that decision was the support from the doctors and the committee and obviously the promise of financial support from the town. None of the other places offered anything like that.”
Back in 2014 the Town of Bonnyville, MD of Bonnyville and local hospital board each put $50,000 into a fund, which would be used to provide loans to prospective doctors needing help starting out in the community.
This past summer Ducharme Motors organized a local golf tournament and sent all of their proceeds towards the doctor recruitment and retention program.
The Festival of Trees, which ran at the C2 from Dec. 3-6, also donated the proceeds from the event to the fund.
“It made a huge difference. I didn't realize how big of a difference it made until I started utilizing it,” said de Villiers. “A lot of that is going to help us get going with a house.”
“It has really helped us out and we thought it would be nice to give something back.”
