On Jan. 17 at the District of Houston council meeting, councillor Jonathan Van Barneveld reported that a new doctor is coming to Houston around March and that Northern Health has also hired a new full-time nurse for the Houston Health Centre.
“[The Houston Health Centre] has a new full-time nurse, which also created an opening for a new back-fill [part-time] public health nurse. It’s kind of a cool success story because one of the new nurses [the part time back-fill nurse] grew up in town,went away for school, and came back,” said councillor Van Barneveld.
There is still lots of room for capacity at the Houston Health Centre with the current doctor. Councillor Van Barneveld said that they are about 50 to 60 per cent, and encourages residents to go to the clinic and register.
“Do you feel that there is an err of caution [from the community] seeing doctors come and go and has created a sense of hesitation to sign up with a doctor here?” asked councillor Rick Lundrigan.
“I would agree. There has a precedence in Houston because in the past a lot of doctors have left town, but what I say to them is that this is the first doctor we’ve had that has bought a house, since the 90s, in town,” replied councillor Van Barneveled.