Editorial There was a doctor in the house

Miners and their families in Faro, Yukon, will be able to rest easier now.

A month or two ago in this space we noted the difficulties remote northern communities have in attracting in-residence doctors, and the efforts of Faro (where Curragh Resources’ lead-zinc mine is just about the only game in town) to find a doctor for the community. Well, they’ve done it. Faro wi ll have a full-fledged physician there by about early September. He’s general practitioner Dr Russel Bamford, from Grande Prairie, Alberta. He’ll draw a salary of $l25,000 a year and have a rent-free house from the town, and Curragh will pay for utilities and the salary of an assistant.

We like the doctor’s adventuresome spirit. “It’s a chance,” he said, “for me to see a wild and magical part of the world.”

That it is, doctor, that it is. We hope you’ll keep your zest, and stay put when you get there. Faro needs you.

Maybe, too, it’s not so tough finding doctors for such remote areas as we earlier suggested it is. The Faro advertising campaign in southern parts of Canada actually drew 25 applicants.