A Kelowna doctor has won an award from the BC College of Family Physicians (BCCFP).
Dr. Linda O’Neill, who moved to Kelowna from Toronto in 2004, was named the winner of the My Family Doctor Award in the Interior Health category.
She was praised by the people who nominated her for bringing “the human touch that is missing from so many of life’s daily interactions.”
Her nominators added: “My senior parents still see her, and she empowers them to navigate their health care needs and solutions. She also sees my sister and her children, and is equally versed in post-natal, childhood and mental health issues.
“She is so intelligent and so kind and supports everyone she encounters.”
The College said the award “celebrates the doctor-patient relationship that supports good health.”
A doctor from Whistler – Dr. Karin Kausky – won the overall BC Family Physician of the Year Award, while Terrace-based Dr. Sasha Langille-Rowe won the First Five Years in Practice Award.
“Evidence shows that having a family doctor who knows you and cares for you over time results in better overall health outcomes, higher patient satisfaction and fewer hospitalizations and emergency room visits,” Powell River-based family doctor and BCCFP President Dr. David May said.
“This is affirmed by the hundreds of letters we have received from patients sharing how essential their family doctor is to their overall health and quality of life.”
Dr. May added: “We received hundreds of nominations for the My Family Doctor awards, this year. But we received even more messages from people desperate to find a family doctor.”
The College has estimated that close to a million people in BC don’t have – and can’t get – a family doctor.
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