EDITORIAL – ‘Action plan’ on doctors is a Band-Aid, but it’s a welcome one

An ArmchairMayor.ca editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

AT LAST, something is being done about the chronic doctor shortage in Kamloops that has left tens of thousands of people without a family physician.

True, it’s a Band-Aid to a festering sore in the province’s healthcare system, but it will staunch some of the pain for at least a little while, and at least in Kamloops.

Health Minister Terry Lake announced today (Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016) a four-point plan that acknowledges the importance of access to a family doctor. For the past couple of years, he and the government have been doing their best to downplay that importance, and have focused on promoting the “campus of care” model rather than fulfilling a long-standing promise to get everyone a GP.

The plan as outlined by Lake:

1. Take immediate steps to increase capacity at walk-in clinics and existing doctors’ offices through the use of locum family doctors over the next six months.

2. Increase existing ongoing practice capacity through targeted recruitment of family doctors and a new “nurse-in-practice” program.

3. Establish and recruit practitioners to new “practice-ready” primary care centres, including placing internationally educated doctors from the Practice Ready Assessment program and recruiting nurse practitioners.

4. Set up specialized community care teams for the frail elderly, patients who are medically complex, and people with mental health and substance use concerns.

Lake said two new team-based primary care centres will be opened on the North Shore early next year, one at the North Shore health centre on Tranquille Road and one at Northills. Together, they’ll accommodate five to seven practitioners.

The model will allow doctors and nurse practitioners to start working as soon as they are recruited in a fully set-up practice, sub-leasing the space from Interior Health, he said.

The ministry imay also add a third primary care centre on the South Shore next year.

Up to five family doctors will be placed in Kamloops through the Practice Ready Assessment-B.C. program, in which family doctors educated in other countries undergo a three-month assessment in a physican practice.

The fourth point is also welcome, with its aim of better integrating primary and community care services and supports for more vulnerable patients. Interior Health will relocate a number of staff to the North Shore to create two targeted specialized teams to support the frail elderly.

Why so much focus on the North Shore? According to Lake, that’s where there’s a particular need. That point is highlighted by the news this week that a private Tranquille Road medical clinic will be closing.

Lake said his ministry is working with Health Link BC to create a dedicated contact number for Kamloops residents looking for a family doctor. By calling the number, you can put on a waitlist.

We’ll believe that one when we see it. That’s what was supposed to happen through a GP for Me, but the “waitlist” turned out to be nothing more than a list of people wanting doctors, without any action. Even at that, it wasn’t easy getting on the list.

Dr. Chip Bantock, chair of the Thompson Region Division of Family Practice, said finding family doctors is still a long-term goal, and the best way for patients to access the healthcare system.

The stopgap program announced by Lake is just that — a stopgap — but it’s a welcome stopgap. Lake and his government are to be commended for taking some direct action, and Kamloops residents will no doubt be pleased that their community is getting attention.

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