The mayor of Bas-Caraquet has given up her office so a new doctor has room to practice in the small community on the Acadian Peninsula.

Mayor Agnes Doiron, who leads two groups dedicated to bringing more doctors to the Acadian Peninsula, said northeastern New Brunswick desperately needs more physicians.

When she heard the medical clinic next to her office needed space so a new doctor it had recruited could move to the village of roughly 1,400 people, she was quick to find a solution.

"We can't say no to another doctor, and the only space we had was my office, so I said, 'Take my office,'" Doiron said.

The physician is expected to move to the region next month.

Doiron wants to bring back the 24-hour service that was cut in 2005 from the nearby Hôpital de l'Enfant Jésus in Caraquet. Recruiting more doctors to the region is the only way to do that, she said.

"We need doctors to have service in our hospital. So it's for the safety of all the people here. So it's better to have another doctor than an office, so that's why," she said.

Doiron has moved into a temporary space while she looks for something permanent.

Dr. Gilbert Blanchard, who runs the medical clinic that is taking over the office, said he's thankful that the mayor agreed to offer her office to allow the new doctor to join the local ranks.

"In the Acadian Peninsula we're quite missing doctors and every day we see 10, 20 patients in [the emergency room] that don't have a family physician. So that's why I'm quite happy with that because I could recruit a new physician," Blancard said.

The new physician will help alleviate some of that long list of people who do not have a family doctor by taking on between 500 and 1,000 patients.