Prince George is the centre of business, education, health and culture for northern British Columbia and services a rural population of about 300,000. The region’s economic growth and diversification strategies are creating outstanding opportunities for investors, employers and employees. Affordable housing, land prices and transportation costs, due to short and quick commutes; result in one of the lowest costs of living for a city of its size in the province. Additionally, wage rates fall above provincial averages, providing residents of Prince George with a high standard of living in one of BC’s most beautiful regions. The city itself is the 4th largest in British Columbia and has a population of approximately 100,000 local residents. It is built on the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers. Prince George is the home of the University of Northern British Columbia – Canada’s Green university. The warm, friendly and diverse population attests to a strong and dynamic community spirit. https://www.northernhealth.ca/our-communities/prince-george
The Department of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) is seeking a General Cardiologist to join our team. The successful candidate will be working alongside one Cardiologist and two Cardiac Internists providing full spectrum inpatient and outpatient general cardiology services. The ability to perform permanent pacemaker implantation is desirable.
The Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) in Prince George opened in December 2023 using a staged implementation approach. Currently an 8–10 bed telemetry unit, the CCU provides care for stable cardiac patients, including those with heart failure, NSTEMI, post-thrombolysis STEMI, atrial fibrillation, arrhythmias, and third-degree heart block.
Looking ahead, the CCU is poised for significant growth. As part of the upcoming Acute Care Tower development, the site will include:
- Two standalone Cardiac Catheterization Labs
- One Cardiac Procedure Room
- Pre- and Post-Care Areas
- A new 6-bed Cardiac Care Unit
- A 20-bed Step-Down Unit
Recruitment is underway for regular and specialty education positions to support higher acuity cardiac care and expand service capacity.
UHNBC offers a full range of non-invasive cardiology services including cardiac stress testing, ambulatory cardiac monitoring and cardiac imaging including MIBI scan, echocardiography with TEE and a state of the art cardiac CT. The expansion of all aspects of cardiology services is being implemented in a multi-phased approach.
The successful candidate will have access to all available non-invasive cardiology services including, ECG and Holter interpretation, cardiac stress testing, and echocardiography. It is expected that the candidate will participate in the NORTH Heart Function Clinic and inpatient cardiology consult services on a rotational basis. Currently working to establish a tertiary cardiac centre which will offer invasive cardiac procedures in the future.
UHNBC serves both the immediate population of Prince George (approx. 80,000) and is a referral centre for outlying communities (total population approx. 400,000). It is the main teaching centre for medical students in the Northern Medical Program and provides teaching for University of British Columbia residents in several specialties. The Department of Internal Medicine currently has 20 members, 13 of whom cover Internal Medicine. There are sub-specialties including Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Infectious Disease, Respirology, Neurology, Dermatology, Rheumatology and Endocrinology. It provides many specialty services including dialysis, endoscopic ultrasound, bronchoscopy, echocardiography (including transesophageal) with potential to develop new services. The BC Cancer Centre for the North is situated on the hospital site and includes radiation and medical oncology services. The ongoing development as a regional and teaching centre makes this an exciting time to join the medical community in Prince George.
The University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) is the largest Acute Care facility within the Northern Health region, and a hub for specialized health services. It’s also a teaching hospital:
- Provides undergraduate physician training through the Northern Medical Program, run by the University of British Columbia and University of Northern British Columbia
- Hosts residents in UBC’s Family Practice Residency Program
- Is a key clinical education site for nursing and many health sciences students at UNBC, the College of New Caledonia,
BCIT and other institutions. UHNBC has benefited from nearly $100 million in expansions, renovations and new equipment since 2001:
- Patient care addition with an expanded emergency room
and updated ICU
- State-of-the-art maternal-child care centre (including a single room neonatal ICU)
- Facilities to accommodate undergraduate physician training
- MRI unit
UHNBC is also home to a cancer centre for Northern BC, featuring a wide range of cancer treatments including radiation therapy.
