After one year since implementation, the Province is celebrating its new compensation model for family doctors and nurse practitioners who work in longitudinal primary care.
However, many people who have lived here for years still find themselves with no hope of finding a family doctor.
Longitudinal primary care refers to the relationship of the doctor and patient. If a family doctor takes on a patient on a long-term basis, regardless of the absence or presence of a medical issue, that is considered longitudinal care.
In the last year, BC says that an additional 708 doctors signed up for the new model, which is an increase of just 16.5%.
There has also been an increase of a mere 60 nurse practitioners throughout the province over the last year because of this program.
The Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, sees this as a win; however, with a population of an estimated 5.5 million—many of whom do not have a family doctor—these increases seem marginal.
“As we mark the first year of our new payment model with family physicians, we’re preparing to connect people to primary care like never before,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.
“Among our efforts to strengthen primary care, launching a new payment system for family doctors has allowed them to focus on what they do best, providing care to patients.”
To register for a family doctor or a nurse practitioner, British Columbians must go through the Health Connect Registry (HCR).
From there, they will be contacted when they have been placed with a doctor or nurse practitioner.
The HCR was expanded in July of last year and since then, as of February 7th, the Province says over 50,000 patients have been connected with doctors or nurse practitioners in their area.
This represents just below 1% of the province’s entire population.
Many who need primary care end up resorting to calling all urgent and primary care centres in their area, just to hear that they are all booked up.
Some of these centres don’t even have a doctor on every day of the week.
From here, people will either resort to making a virtual appointment through a service like Telus Health or Rocket Doctor, or, they will have to make their way to an emergency room and wait for several hours.
Related:
According to a 2022 BC College of Family Physicians report, around 84% of British Columbians do have an ongoing relationship with a family physician.
However, 40% of those individuals are worried about losing their family doctor to closure or burnout.
That means nearly one million British Columbians don’t have access to a family doctor and nearly two million are nervous they will lose theirs.
