Powell River is not alone when it comes to dealing with a shortage of family physicians. It is a province-wide problem which has grown over the past 10 years.
Doctors of BC, the provincial medical association, estimates that since 2005 there has been an increase of about 44,000 British Columbians who are unattached to a family doctor.
BC health minister Terry Lake has acknowledged that the problem persists despite efforts to stem it. In 2010 the provincial government announced its A GP for Me program with a promise that every British Columbian who needs a family doctor could have one by 2015.
While the government has tried to address the problem by increasing the number of doctors graduating from BC medical schools and recruiting doctors internationally, more needs to be done. Doctors of BC estimates that 450 new doctors are required each year to meet the need, but last year only 288 graduated.
Dr. Bruce Hobson, Powell River Division of Family Practice chair, estimates locally there are between 4,000 to 5,000 residents who are unattached to a family doctor, close to a quarter of the population. The division anticipates finding doctors for fewer than 30 per cent of those.
There is no magic bullet to solve this problem. Perhaps taking another look at the fee for service model that the government uses to pay doctors could be part of the solution.
A model combining a number of doctors working together with registered nurses and nurse practitioners could be a more effective way to deliver health care services. The unit would handle a set number of patients and be paid an annual fee for taking care of those people’s health.
Nurse practitioners are already being relied on in some communities in walk-in clinics as salaried employees of the health authorities. They are able to provide 80 per cent of the services a general practitioner does including providing diagnosis, writing prescriptions and ordering lab tests. This model would allow each unit of health care professionals more flexibility and efficiency and give doctors more balance in their lives to practice the kind of medicine they want to provide. Doctors could spend more time with patients who have chronic or complex illnesses, freeing them up from the number of patients who come in for more basic health concerns.
