A Nanaimo doctor was presented with a Royal Life Saving Society award by the Queen herself.

Dr. Steve Beerman, the 2020 recipient of the King Edward VII Cup recognizing outstanding contribution to life-saving, was honoured with a virtual awards ceremony earlier this week.

Queen Elizabeth II asked Beerman a little bit about drowning prevention and he told her that there are an estimated 235,000 drowning deaths worldwide each year.

sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 a very compelling and challenging issue, but it does have significant, inexpensive sa国际传媒� interventions which we are trying to share as widely as possible,sa国际传媒� he said.

The Queen said it was sa国际传媒渧ery nice to hear aboutsa国际传媒� the sa国际传媒渧ery importantsa国际传媒� work.

Clive Holland, deputy commonwealth president of the RLSS, said Beerman was being honoured for sa国际传媒渙utstanding national and international leadership in the drowning prevention field for more than four decades.sa国际传媒�

Beerman, a former lifeguard, said life-saving is one of his passions. His work includes serving as principal investigator of the Bangladesh Anchal and SwimSafe child drowning prevention research study. He has also served as an advisor to the World Health Organizationsa国际传媒檚 global report on drowning and for the United Nations. He said a UN resolution on drowning prevention, providing guidance to 194 countries, is sa国际传媒渙ne of the many sentinel events that Isa国际传媒檝e been working towards for a long time.sa国际传媒�

Beerman retired from Anchor Family Medicine centre in March and was also recently awarded the Dr. David M. Bachop Gold Medal for Distinguished Medical Service from Doctors of B.C., for his contributions to organized medicine and community service.

Beerman helped to establish the UBC family practice residency program in Nanaimo, which serves as an apprenticeship for new doctors. A family doctor in Nanaimo for 34 years, Beerman said he helped set up the residency program sa国际传媒渇rom scratchsa国际传媒� in 2007. The Nanaimo site was established as the community was struggling to recruit and maintain family physicians. The program helps to place 16 resident doctors in Nanaimo for two years, with eight graduating each year.

sa国际传媒淭hese are people who have finished medical school and theysa国际传媒檙e doing two years of family practice training in Nanaimo, and then they get licensed to be family physicians sa国际传媒� theresa国际传媒檚 exams they have to write during that period of time and they have experiential learning opportunities, nearly exclusively based in Nanaimo,sa国际传媒� said Beerman. sa国际传媒淭hey work both in the hospital and the community setting and about 50 per cent of them end up staying here.sa国际传媒�

Congrats to for being awarded the Dr David M. Bachop Gold Medical for Distinguished Medical Service from ! Dr Beerman was the driving force behind the creation of the Family Practice Residency Program in Nanaimo.

sa国际传媒� BC Family Doctors (@BCFamilyDoctors)

There is a lack of family doctors in Nanaimo despite the residency program, and Beerman said the issue is complex. There isnsa国际传媒檛 actually a lack of family doctors, but a lack of family doctors sa国际传媒渄oing full-spectrum, community-based, family medicine,sa国际传媒� he said.

Better collaboration between government funding mechanisms and community need is what is required to remedy the situation, he suggested.

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