Come and Practice Family Medicine in Mission, British Columbia

Message from Dr Peter Barnsdale:
As a Board member and past chair of the Mission Division of Family Practice I’d like to introduce you to the beautiful community of Mission. We are a neighbourhood with 41,000 residents in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, nestled up against the Fraser River. Abbotsford lays to our south, and Stave Lake and Golden Ears Provincial Park to our north. 

Photo courtesy of B-columbia

Community Overview

Mission is a semi-rural community with farming, fisheries, and forestry providing work for about 17% of our population. Apart from those working locally we are also home to a growing commuter workforce. Mission is in an ideal position for access to Vancouver. We host the terminal station for the West Coast Express, a dedicated commuter train and bus service, which takes passengers daily to Waterfront Station in Central Vancouver and stops at all the main communities in between. Mission enjoys the enviable position of being close enough to work in a big city like Vancouver but rural enough to enjoy less expensive housing and large lot sizes surrounded by nature. Our city also sits in an ideal position for easy access to the US border with Washington State located 20 minutes to the south, or Highway One with access to British Columbia’s interior to the east. 

District of Mission Website >
 

 
Photo courtesy of Jason Roessle

Recreation and Schooling

Leisure activities around our area are numerous and action-packed. Name any one outdoor activity and Mission can offer it with minimal travel time. Our community is a destination for city dwellers to our west. We enjoy skiing, hiking, boating, shooting, hunting, horse-riding, mountain-biking, swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, kayaking, hockey, soccer, airfields, historical sites, cultural activities and great shopping all in or near Mission. Schooling options are excellent with private and public schooling, including a Francophone school located in town. A Catholic boys’ school is based at the beautiful Westminster Abbey, which provides a well known landmark towering over Mission’s eastern border. 

 
Mission Parks, Recreation & Culture >
Mission Leisure Guide >
Mission Youth Lounge >

Mission Public School District >
Valley Christian School >
École de Deux-rives >
MEI Schools >
University of the Fraser Valley >

Physician Community

So what’s it like to work here? As a physician you will join a community of about 30 local family doctors.  Most of our physicians have been here for a substantial portion of their careers and enjoy living and working in the community. We are organized into four main clinics, each hosting four to eight GPs with a couple of independent doctors also working in Mission. Almost all our doctors maintain links with our GP-run hospital with visiting specialists in the fields of general medicine, orthopaedics, plastics, anaesthesia, and gastroenterology. The 22-bed hospital has a 24-hour Emergency Room and also two physician groups that provide maternity services. Deliveries are carried out in the neighbouring Abbotsford Regional Hospital 15 minutes away. Mission also has a dedicated palliative care unit which provides high-quality care to patients from Mission and the immediately surrounding areas. A number of our doctors take special interest in areas such as palliative, emergency, obstetrical, psychiatric, prison, addictions, surgical, and paediatric medicine, which provides an interesting and rewarding mix of work beyond office-based practice. Our community takes pride in its hospital and historically was heavily involved in its inception and development. Recently the Mission municipality has been engaged in joint plans with our local Health Authority to develop a new multidisciplinary Health Centre. When operational, this centre will facilitate an even greater level of collaborative health services on one site. We believe this will enhance our ability to provide excellent and continuous care to the people of Mission with our family doctors at the hub of the relationship. 

As Mission moves forward and grows we are looking for family physicians, both new and with previous experience, to join our ranks. We can offer part-time work and job share potential in addition to full-time positions. We believe this is an exciting opportunity to contribute and develop skills in a collegial and supported setting. Come and find out more for yourself. 

Peter Barnsdale
Mission Division of Family Practice