Pediatrician - Chilliwack General Hospital

Fraser Health is the heart of health care for over two million people in 20 diverse communities from Burnaby to Fraser Canyon on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Coast Salish and Nlaka’pamux Nations and is home to 32 First Nations within the Fraser Salish region.

Our hospital and community-based services are delivered by a team of 48,000+ staff, medical staff and volunteers dedicated to serving our patients, families and communities.

Pediatricians – 3 full-time

These posts include two full time new posts designed to expand the existing community based pediatric practice and one replacement post for a retiring pediatrician. Applications from new graduates would be welcome and mentoring over two years would be provided to those applicants. Job share applications are welcome. The post holders would be based within the existing Chilliwack Pediatric Clinic which operates independently within the Chilliwack General Hospital utilizing office space rented from the health authority. The decision to base the clinic in the hospital was made to facilitate more effective and higher quality acute pediatric care to Maternity Services, the Emergency Room and the Pediatric Observation Unit as well as enhance services to family’s attending the clinic.

The current scope of practice of the five pediatricians comprises the following elements:

Acute Services:

Including the new posts there will be a 1 in 5 acute on call rota providing coverage for Maternity and Delivery Suite, Emergency Room consultations, as well as a 7 bed 24hr observation unit for short stay treatment and observation of acutely unwell children. There are urgent acute referrals from family doctors or other local specialists.

Maternity: Pediatricians attend high risk deliveries for which there are designated mandatory referral criteria. Pediatricians also attend unexpected/unplanned pre-term deliveries where mothers cannot be transferred to an appropriate center prior to the delivery. Babies are stabilized including respiratory support and ventilation prior to collection by the Provincial Infant Transport Team. Management of short term infant medical problems where resolution is expected within 48 hours occurs on site. Pediatricians are consulted for post-delivery concerns with infants.

Acute Pediatrics: Pediatricians are consulted by emergency room physicians. Children are seen and assessed in the Emergency Room if they are high acuity needing full monitoring or if less acute are seen on the Pediatric Observation Unit. Acute referrals from local family doctors or other specialists may be seen either in the pediatric observation unit or the emergency room depending on the acuity. The observation unit opened 1 year ago and has dramatically increased the number of referrals and children being seen – over 2000 children seen in the first year of operation.  

Children requiring greater than 24 hours care are admitted either to Abbotsford Regional Hospital or to BC Children’s Hospital. Excellent links exist between ourselves other Fraser Health hospitals and the tertiary center. A centralized transport system exists for children to facilitate transfer.

Community Services:

General Pediatric Services: The pediatric clinic sees children from birth until 19 years with general pediatric medical problems, social and developmental problems, behavior and mental health problems, learning difficulties and school issues. The nature of the population group served is that 50% of the clinic workload encompasses the latter three groups.

Specialist Services: One of the pediatricians does outreach clinics in Hope (50km East of Chilliwack) to serve the large geographical areas served by the hospital. One of the pediatricians does a weekly multidisciplinary child development clinic at the Child Development Centre. Further discussions are currently taking place with local stakeholders to look at expanding multi-agency child health working to for pre-school and school aged children.

Developmental pediatric experience and training would be an advantage. We would be flexible about providing additional training if necessary.

Please submit your curriculum vitae and letter of interest ot apply. Applicants are required to provide three contact referee names. New graduates must provide a letter of reference from their residency program director and fellowship supervisor. CPSBC US certified class of registration acceptable.

Additional Incentives: 

Chilliwack General Hospital (CGH) provides an innovative model of pediatric service delivery customized to meet the unique needs of this charming Fraser Valley community. The current physician group is committed to developing a holistic multidisciplinary all-inclusive pediatric service to our diverse population (rather than just an acute service with physicians working in individual offices). A pediatrician with an interest in contributing to and extending this exciting development of a patient centered community service is preferred.

CGH is proud of its extremely active and collegial medical community, with the local team working diligently to develop strong internal and community partnerships that work in concert to provide a robust local specialized service. Strong referring relationships exist with both the tertiary referral centre at BC Children’s Hospital and partnering FHA acute hospitals. The CGH program continues to grow and develop with opportunities to participate in many service sectors that require consultative pediatric services (i.e. school health, developmental pediatrics, primary care etc.). Our strong reputation has resulted in the Chilliwack Family Practice residency training program being recognized as one of the most highly requested programs for graduating medical students across Canada.  In addition pediatric residents from BC Children’s hospital doing community attachments will be starting at the end of this year. Chilliwack - population 80,000- is growing rapidly with local residents enjoying a diverse lifestyle given its proximity to several larger cities (Langley, Burnaby Vancouver) and its reputation as a smaller recreation-focused community. It is ideally placed for many diverse activities located just over an hour from downtown Vancouver and 20 minutes to the nearest Canada/USA Boarder and 2-3hrs from BC Interior recreational centres. Activities such as golfing, skiing, hiking, climbing, cycling boating/fishing theatre or music are all available locally or further afield. The beauty of the Fraser Valley is unparalleled and the opportunities await you. If you are interested in hearing more about us and our program. 

Fraser Health values diversity in the work force and strives to maintain an environment of Respect, Caring & Trust. Fraser Health’s hiring practices aspire to ensure all individuals are treated in an inclusive, equitable and culturally safe manner.