Bell Islanders are pulling a Grand Seduction, sort of, to lure back former family physician

Residents of Bell Island in Newfoundland and Labrador are pulling on heartstrings in an attempt to bring back a family physician. 

In an effort reminiscent of The Grand Seduction — a 2013 movie in which a small Newfoundland town tries to entice a doctor to relocate there by using trickery, staged cricket matches and free money left on the community's wharf — residents are posting memories and support for Dr. Firas Ayar on Facebook to draw the doctor back to the island, which is currently without a family physician. 

Over the last year, Bell Island – which is a 20-minute ferry ride from Portugal Cove-St. Phillip's, just outside St. John's – lost all three of its family physicians and has only one doctor working in its emergency room. 

Ayar left in September.

"He had so much empathy, so much compassion and he was so ethical in what he did. He integrated himself into our community," Lorraine Fowler, 66 and a lifelong Bell Island resident, told CBC News.

"He stood by his patients. He was overworked when you look at the long hours he would put in and always greeted you with a smile."

Fowler said she was devastated by Ayar's departure but the Facebook group is a way to express how the community feels about the doctor who had served it since 2003 and to emphasize its need for another physician.

She said Bell Island is struggling without a family physician, adding many outport communities in the province are suffering the same fate. 

"Eastern Health really needs to step up to this plate and ensure there's an incentive for these doctors to stay here, especially the ones who are committed to Bell Island such as Dr. Ayar," said Fowler. 

"I'm passionate about this and I hope and pray to God that Dr. Ayar does the have opportunity to come back." 

Kara O'Keefe, a pharmacist working on Bell Island, says residents feel helpless. 

O'Keefe said the island is vulnerable because there are a lot of chronic health-care conditions such as diabetes, lung disease and high rates of heart failure among the 2,800 people on the island.

Without family doctors in the community, she said, patients are not being treated properly, risking hospitalization or even death, she said.

"Although they do have access to a physician in the emergency room, they don't have that same continuity of care. So they don't have a physician who is familiar with them or who has their family history, who knows their history and their chronic diseases."