Health Minister Adrian Dix, who was joined by Doctors of BC President Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, says the funding will help ensure patients have continued access to primary care. “You will see in the coming days and weeks many more steps to increase access and the number of primary care providers…but this is a necessary first step. It reflects the dozens and dozens of hours we have worked with Doctors of BC,” said Dix. “It’s fair to say that our primary care system, which has developed over a long period of time, this model no longer meets the needs of patients or doctors, so this is a demonstration of tangible action right now that brings immediate relief to family practices. and that’s good news for patients and doctors.” It looks like that money will be about $25,000 per doctor and it’s just a direct payment to them that they can spend however they want. Some may go to overheads, some may go to their salaries, it will depend on them. This is what I get from @adriandix’s answer on the topic. — Rob Shaw (@RobShaw_BC) August 24, 2022 The funding amounts to about $27,000 per medical practitioner, Dix said, and addresses the ongoing issue of overhead costs in the interim while the government and Doctors of BC craft a new reimbursement model to be unveiled this fall. Of the $118 million fund, $75 million will come from the Ministry of Health and $43 million will come from the General Practice Services Committee, a group co-chaired by the ministry and Doctors of BC. The funding period will run from 1 October 2022 to 31 January 2023 and will help GPs and primary care clinics, including walk-in clinics, to help pay for their overhead costs. BC announces $118 million in “stabilization” funding to family doctors, who agree to keep clinics open and see patients. 70% of family physicians are expected to be eligible. Funding will flow for 4 months (October-January). — Rob Shaw (@RobShaw_BC) August 24, 2022 Dosanjh called the fund an “interim solution to stop the bleeding” that family doctors and clinics are feeling until a longer-term solution is reached. “Our family physicians are finding it more and more difficult as the rising costs, the rising costs of business, and we know that most family physicians, in their clinic operating costs are between 30 and 40 percent and sometimes higher,” he said. . The province says about 3,480 family doctors in the province have their own practices, while 1,110 work in clinics, and all will be eligible for funding. Doctors’ groups have asked the province for support to help family doctors cover their overhead costs, such as hiring administrative staff, renting space and maintaining electronic records systems, a proposal echoed earlier this month by B.C.’s hopeful leader NDP David Eby. BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon told the media after the press conference that this was a “partial, timid” step towards solving the crisis. “It’s a very expensive short-term dressing that only treats one of the wounds. The patient, if I could use a metaphor, is bleeding everywhere and putting a bandage on just one part of the patient is not going to address the challenge,” he said. “What we need to do is have a holistic set of bold responses that can start retaining doctors so they stop leaving family medicine and start attracting new doctors to the practice. That’s not going to happen until we see more boldness in government.” In a statement, BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau said the new fund was a good step toward addressing the shortage, but that change is coming too late. “We asked for funding to support general relief earlier this year, what took so long? Much more needs to be done to stop clinic closings and ensure people have access to a primary care provider,” said Furstenau. Adam Olsen, Green Party MLA for Saanich North and Islands, said many clinics have closed in recent months as the crisis worsened. “Doctors in my riding have been raising this with me for years, I have shared their concerns with the Department of Health. Their lack of action until now has cost people their family doctor and access to primary care,” he said. Almost a million people in British Columbia do not have access to a family doctor in a province of just five million, according to the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons. The province also has some of the longest clinic wait times in Canada, with Victoria experiencing the longest waits in the country at more than two and a half hours on average, according to Medimap. Watch the full press conference below:
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