Two organizations have put forth a list of demands from the government to improve access to healthcare ahead of the BC election.
BC Family Doctors and the BC College of Family Physicians want to make it easier for doctors to want to go into family practice care, rather than choosing another field that might be easier or have a lighter administrative workload.
Currently, there are an estimated 700,000 British Columbians without a family doctor.
According to BC Family Doctors, there are more doctors than ever across the country, but this hasn’t changed how difficult it is to get a family doctor for Canadians.
They say that the problem isn’t the number of doctors, it’s how they’re distributed and what roles they choose.
Many doctors avoid longitudinal care because of administrative burdens and better compensated opportunities in other areas of care.
BC Family Doctors have put together an ‘election toolkit’ to help British Columbians advocate for the conditions that may inspire more doctors to become family doctors.
“The upcoming provincial election is an opportunity for you to impact funding, patient care, and working conditions for you and your patients,” wrote BC Family Doctors in a media release.
Their three big asks are to put patients before paperwork, increase respect and representation of family doctors in decision making processes and to put in place supports for family doctors’ practices.
Specifically, BC Family Doctors and the BC College of Family Physicians believe these asks can be achieved by:
- Making improvements to the pharmacare processes and lifting responsibility for filling out forms from family doctors
- Implementing legislation to eliminate employer sick note requests
- Put forth a coordinated approach to adopting and funding EMRs (electronic medical records)
- Giving their organizations a seat at decision-making tables to be heard and to contribute to healthcare policies
- Providing access to basic employment standards and benefits like other healthcare workers, including paid sick time, vacation/locum coverage, extended health and dental benefits and a pension plan
- Funding and support for team-based care in family medicine clinics, enabling better access to care with the addition of nursing and allied care providers
- Funding for the business costs of community-based family medicine clinics
“I think we are at a crossroads of finally getting our voices heard. Now we need the resources and supports to care for our patients, run our practices, and most importantly, care for ourselves and our families,” said Dr. Maryam Zeineddin, President of BC Family Doctors.
These organizations say they have seen vast improvement over the last 18 months with BC government decision making to improve access to family doctors, but the healthcare system remains at a crossroads.
They want people to be informed and be asking the candidates in their area the questions that may lead to better legislation and more doctors.
