Everyone in BC deserves access to a family doctor.
We are a grassroots group of family doctors from across British Columbia advocating for better patient care in BC. We believe that urgent changes must be made now to ensure everyone has a family doctor.
Because we believe British Columbians deserve better.
British Columbians are facing a family doctor crisis.
Here's what's wrong:
900,000 BC Residents don’t have access to a Family Doctor and have little hope of finding one.
More family doctor practices are closing every week due to the unsustainable model of remuneration that can't support these small business - even when the doctors are hustling and giving everything they have to care for their patients.
The healthcare budget in BC is skyrocketing, while still leaving British Columbians scrambling to access regular medical care.
BC is facing overfilled emergency departments and some of the longest lineups in Canada for walk-in clinics, and the situation is only getting worse.
How you can help
Sign up to get emails and be informed about this issue that affects all British Columbians.
Together, we can solve this crisis and get everyone the access to primary health care that they deserve.
Our group family doctors for patient care in BC knows there are NOW solutions:
BC currently has the physician supply to solve this crisis. But other job doctors can do have better working conditions.
The NOW solution:
To solve the crisis, only 8.8% of the current workforce, or 600 family doctors, would need to start a family medicine practice. This reachable change in workforce distribution would provide 900,000 British Columbians with a family doctor.
The profession of Family Medicine needs to be sufficiently attractive to keep the current family doctors and attract more to work in BC.
The current fee for service model doesn't support doctors to spend more time with patients.
The NOW solution:
Time-based fee for service billing only makes sense - it would support and value the time family doctors need to spend with their patients.
This change would have immediate impacts retaining family doctors and meeting the needs of British Columbians.
While contracts are also becoming available, they do not present such an immediate solution to this crisis.
Team based care is important, and is the future of primary care - doctors want it and so do patients.
Physicians running their community clinics, who provide 90% of the primary care in BC, need to be able to access the types of teams that are being provided in the UPCCs and PCN's and they need to be supported to do so.
The NOW solution:
Infrastructure and HR Support could be provided for BC's family doctors to develop integrated team based care locally and create the care teams that best suit their patients.
Here are the facts you need to know:
BC Family Doctors are necessary and cost-effective.
They are the access points & the front door, to the healthcare system.
And yet British Columbians are lucky if they can access a family doctor or primary care provider who knows them. Many are left getting their regular medical care by standing in line for hours, hoping to get in to see someone they don't know. 40% of British Columbians worry they'll loose their family doctor in the next year.
The BC medical system is saturated with patients who have no family doctor, leading to poorer outcomes, more expensive hospital and expensive UPCC visits, and a system that is unable to handle the aging and ailing population in BC.
And yet, while it sounds daunting, this is a cause worth fighting for...
... There are solutions.
Join our mailing list to get
the solutions to the family doctor crisis:
Who are we?
We’re a grassroots alliance of doctors with our finger on the pulse of what doctors and patients in BC are going through.
We believe that through application of evidence-based facts, it is possible to get all British Columbians a family doctor.
We support our family practice organizations working on this problem.
Our email: [email protected]
