Province in primary care calamity
NDP government still struggling to hire doctors, report suggests
B.C.'s primary care clinics, touted as a way to provide urgent health care to people without a family doctor, are chronically understaffed and don't have enough doctors to keep up with demand, according to Ministry of Health documents.
The revelations come as hundreds of people gathered Thursday on the lawn of the legislature demanding government action on the family doctor shortage.
B.C. Liberal health critic Shirley Bond accused Health Minister Adrian Dix of “dodging questions about the lack of family doctors in B.C.” and pointing to the urgent primary care centres as a potential solution to the crisis.
“Now we see the NDP's (urgent primary care centres) and primary care networks (PCNs) are horrendously understaffed and failing to address the needs of British Columbians without a family doctor,” Bond said in a statement.
For example, the Westshore urgent primary care clinic, in Premier John Horgan's riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca, has one doctor out of the seven full-time doctors it's supposed to have.
Richmond's primary care network has been open for three years and government funding allowed for 32 full-time physicians. It currently has only one doctor. The North Shore primary care network has been operating for two years and has just three physicians of the 17.5 doctors approved.
The Ministry of Health documents were released by the B.C. Liberal Party, which requested figures on staffing levels at urgent primary care centres and primary care networks.
Dix has touted urgent primary care centres and the larger system of team-based primary care networks as a way for people without a family doctor to access same-day appointments for urgent needs. The goal is also for patients to become attached to a physician who knows your medical history and can provide continuing care.
However, urgent primary care centres across B.C. have struggled to keep up with patient demand, often putting up signs early in the morning saying appointments are full for the day.
Horgan acknowledged the urgent primary care clinics are shortstaffed, which is why on Thursday morning he spoke to federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos about increasing Ottawa's health transfers to the provinces.
“We have hired more healthcare professionals in the past three years than in the previous 13 years,” Horgan told reporters. “And despite that, we're still coming up short.”
Horgan said B.C.'s health-care shortage isn't new, but it's been exacerbated by the aging population. He noted the high number of doctors in their 70s treating patients in their 80s.
“So we have a large systemic problem. That will require large rethinking and that's why it starts with the Canada Health Transfer,” he said.
In question period, Dix defended the primary care model, saying the government has added 59 primary care networks, which have attached 142,000 people to either a physician or nurse practitioner.
The scrutiny on primary care staffing levels came as hundreds of people stood outside the Legislature on World Family Doctor Day and called for immediate government funding to shore up the crumbling health-care system.
Shelly Jetzer, a family doctor based in South Delta, wore black to the rally to indicate that she, too, doesn't have a family doctor.
“I'm a family doctor and I don't have a family doctor,” said Jetzer, who said her doctor couldn't find anyone to take over her practice when she retired. “That's one of the reasons I'm here.”