B.C. needs to invest in primary care to stem the bleeding of family doctors from rural areas
Rural communities in B.C. will continue to suffer critical doctor shortages and the knock-on effect of repeated emergency room closures until B.C.’s primary care system is modernized, an expert says.
The overhead costs, complexity and administrative burdens of private practice are radically different from decades past and new doctors don’t want the heavy burdens and gruelling hours associated with it, she said. One in five B.C. residents, approximately a million people, doesn’t have a family doctor, a situation that’s been ailing rural areas for decades and is now an urgent issue everywhere.
The region’s other ERs at Port Hardy and Port McNeill hospitals — dependent on family doctors for coverage — saw repeated closures this summer and are diverting patients from one hospital to another on a near-daily basis. Nearly half of family doctors surveyed would prefer to be a clinic employee rather than a small business owner, a research study by McCracken indicates.
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