Shortage of doctors and incentives to work in family practice cut walk-in clinics by a third to a half in B.C.
VANCOUVER — The B.C. NDP’s efforts to improve health care through a new payment model for family physicians and the establishment of urgent and primary care centres has had the unintended consequence of cutting the ranks of walk-in clinics across the province.
Dr. Rita McCracken, a family physician and UBC assistant professor in the family practice department, said part of the problem is the new payment model introduced by then-health minister Adrian Dix in 2023 that aims to retain family physicians through better compensation. The model encourages doctors to work in family practice instead of putting in hours at a walk-in clinic, she said.
“I’m not saying that there aren’t many, many problems with education right now, but if we just kind of take a look at that model of access to public education, we’ve completely thrown that out the window when it comes to primary care.” “I know the government gives their statistics that thousands of people are getting attached to a family doctor, but there’s still 800,000 people who aren’t and where do they go?” asked McLeod. “A lot of people don’t realize if your family doctor retires or deactivates their college number, any outstanding refills or renewals of medications that you might have at your pharmacy are all automatically cancelled.
Osborne says the main challenge is the shortage of health-care professionals in B.C. and believes the province’s efforts to recruit more physicians, nurse practitioners and other health workers fields will help. MediMap CEO Thomas Jankowski said solutions are needed in short order as the closures of clinics has made waiting times at remaining walk-in clinics rise by 60 per cent. Meanwhile, emergency room waiting times continue to worsen as more people lose access to other options for primary care.
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