Same mismanagement, different doctor

I am an actively practising family physician in B.C. and have worked here for 35 years. To state that health care in Canada is a mess would be a gross understatement.

In 2004, the federal government spent a good deal of taxpayer dollars to host a massive Health Accord with all provincial counterparts in health management attending. A comprehensive document was produced and a lot of attention was given to primary care.

Unfortunately, the advice which the respective health ministers so meticulously outlined was never instituted by themselves in restructuring primary care.

For 20-plus years, the formula to correct primary care has been evident — and simply ignored.

Instead of adopting the advice from this accord, Premier David Eby has now resorted to openly soliciting family physicians from the U.K. to come to B.C. to work.

Instead of correcting the fundamental problems in health management, he is simply adding more fuel to the fire by poaching more warm bodies from other countries to work our broken system.

In the past two years, family physicians in B.C. have had a lot of money thrown their way in order to mollify them and quiet their voices.

If you think this is going to make it easier for you to find a family physician you will be sadly mistaken. Because the fundamental organizational structure of primary care has not been addressed, and because the fundamental deliverables have not been defined, it will be business as usual.

The only change is that you may be seen by a foreign-trained physician who has been unethically taken from their home country to serve you inside a desperately mismanaged system here at home.

Robert H. Brown M.D., C.C.F.P. North Saanich