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Taking care of their own

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Man walks up ramp to birthing suite
Patients heading home after giving birth at the Fort St. John Hospital will be attached to family doctors in the community.

Birthing mothers and their newborn babies will have one more reason to be happy when they leave the Fort St. John Hospital. Local physicians and prenatal clinic staff are excited now that they’ll be able to attach moms and their newborns to family doctors in the community!

“This is such great news for the community and I couldn’t be more happy with this advancement,” says Mary Severson-Augustine, Executive Director of the North Peace Division of Family Practice. “A big shout out to the physicians of Fort St. John!”

In recent years, physician capacity has been a major factor leading to the inability to consistently offer primary care services to new mothers. Sheer volume of patient mothers and babies was also a factor: In the past, the “energetic city” has shared the honour of producing the highest birth rate per-capita in the country, alongside larger metropolitan cities like Surrey. In 2022, Fort St. John had only seven less births than the City of Prince George, a city with over four times the population.

The news is sure to come as a relief to the growing number of families that call Fort St. John and the surrounding communities home!