Monday February 9, 2026 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 1:23 pm PT | Last update 3:06 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The City of Langford hosted the official public opening of the Goldstream Medical Clinic this morning.
The clinic is located just off Goldstream Avenue at 2832 Bryn Maur Road in the heart of downtown Langford.
With tents for rain cover, today’s outdoor event was attended by about 80 people including Langford Mayor and Council, senior city staff, leadership from the South Island Primary Care Society (SIPCS), doctors, community leaders, and news media.
A milestone for Langford:
“This is a fantastic day,” said Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson in his remarks at the outdoor podium. “It is a milestone not just for Langford, but for the entire west shore.”
“Our community is growing at a remarkable pace and with that growth comes pressure on infrastructure, services and our health care system,” said Goodmanson who called it a “profound honour” to be there with Langford council to recognize the launch of the new clinic that will absorb 12,500 patients into primary care.
Goodmanson called Langford “a caring community” and he notes “what Langford council will do when our residents need us most”.
“Vision, urgency and opportunity” were three key things that Langford Council noted from SIPCS with their proposal for a clinic in the new Masonic building, said Goodmanson. “We knew this project could not wait.”
“Langford has never believed in letting red tape get in the way of real solutions,” said the first-term mayor.
Funding from the City:
Last year up to $1.7 million was authorized by Langford Council to support the opening by funding equipment and tenant improvements at what is now the Goldstream Medical Clinic.
Today Langford’s confidence in the South Island Primary Care Society (SIPCS) was obvious.
SIPSC was founded in 2020. As SIPCS Executive Director Alyssa Andres highlighted in her podium remarks today, this is the fifth location opened by the not-for-profit society,
Andres says frontline teams is the focus of her organization, including the training of staff to support the medical practitioners.
“We are proving something important today, that when governments, non-profits and community partners and donors unite around a common purpose, nothing is impossible. Leadership has met determination,” said Goodmanson.
Global recruitment:
Ten new doctors will be operational at the clinic by the end of this year.
“They are not being recruited from other island communities. Four physicians have come to Langford from the United Kingdom, and soon six more doctors and nurse practitioners will join them from the UK, South Africa, and the United States,” said Mayor Goodmanson.
“This is global-level requirement happening right here in Langford. People want to practice in communities that believe in innovation, a balanced lifestyle, collaboration and responsiveness,” said Goodmanson.
The 12,500 patients that will be served at the new clinic represent “not just progress, that’s transformative”, said Scott Goodmanson at the podium today.
Improving quality of life:
The opening was a ‘significant moment in Langford’s history, one that will greatly improve the quality of life so many members of the community,” said Langford CAO Darren Kiedyk (as emcee for today’s event).
Kiedyk said that less than eight months ago council tool “bold and immediate action to make a tangible impact on the health care crisis”.
The City of Langford took up the offer from SIPCS to “partner on a modern medical clinic in downtown Langford”, responding with “enthusiasm and unanimous support”, the city’s CAO said today.
Funding for tenant improvements and equipment was unattainable from the Province of BC. Given that the Langford council felt that accessible health care was important for their community, they proceeded with the SIPCS model which relies on fundraising for operations.
The BC Ministry of Health will be covering the cost of salaries of the 10 medical professionals (doctors and nurse practitioners) at the clinic.
Langford leadership:
The City of Langford was represented today by Mayor Scott Goodmanson, with his full council alongside: Kimberley Guiry, Colby Harder, Mark Morley, Lillian Szpak, Mary Wagner and Keith Yacucha.
Senior staff on hand were CAO Darren Kiedyk, Deputy CAO Braden Hutchins, Senior Manager of Communications & Economic Development Donna Petrie, and Director of Parks, Recreation and Facilities Yari Nielsen. Langford Fire Chief Chris Aubrey attended.
- Staff, doctors and board members of the South Island Primary Care Society were on hand. “They worked tirelessly to ensure this clinic opened on time and ready to serve the community,” said Kiedyk at the podium today.
- Doctors from the SIPCS there today included Dr Spencer Cleave and Dr. Eleanor Grainger. SIPCS Executive Director Alyssa Andres delivered remarks at the podium, after hours of preparation this morning to make sure the clinic was ready for a media tour.
- David Cronkhite from the Westshore Masonic Centre was there, along with others of the Freemasons.The clinic is leased within the Mason’s building at 2832 Bryn Maur Road.
- Doug Wong and Chris Fryling were there from WA Architects, a company whose theme is ‘different by design’.
- Stewart Story and Mark Anderson of Story Construction that specializes in ‘interesting projects’ were there.
The new clinic in Langford:
The spacious Goldstream Medical Clinic provides operational capacity for 10 doctors, attaching approximately 12,500 patients. That’s considered to be a major step toward addressing almost half the estimated 27,000 unattached patients in the West Shore region.
Under the Province of BC’s agreement with the Doctors of BC, each family doctor should be attached to about 1,250 patients. For now, the 10 physicians at the Goldstream Medical Clinic will each have a panel of about 1,000 patients until the new clinic and their processes settle in; a full panel will be achieved in time. As well, most of the new doctors are from international locations, so there is adaptation time in that respect as well.
All the patients are received through the BC Health Connect Registry. That’s an online portal where BC residents can indicate their need for a family doctor.
“A strong, long-term primary care provider and patient relationship is an important step in you and your family’s healthful living,” says the BC Health Ministry on the BC Health Connect Registry website.
Selection of patients from that roster into clinics is a general process of how long a person has been without a family doctor together with the complexity of care requirements.
Last year the Ministry of Health told Island Social Trends in a statement that the ministry has committed to support 10 family physicians and nurse practitioners at the new Langford clinic on Bryn Maur Road. That includes covering the cost of salaries.
Doctor shortage:
The shortage of family doctors and primary care services has been an articulated significant concern for communities across British Columbia for at least five years. The shortage itself goes back to 2016 as being an emerging then escalating crisis.
About a decade ago, many family doctors who ran their practices as a business began retiring to a noticeable degree.
Political scope:
The previous BC Liberal government had a “GP for me” campaign in 2016, which delivered no situational change.
The BC NDP government was elected in 2017, and in 2018 began their journey to increasing health-care facilities (including opening up numerous Urgent and Primary Care Clinics (UPCCs) over the past eight years.
Since 2018, there have been several programs to encourage more health-care workers into the system including more nursing and allied health seats at post-secondary institutions and under Premier Eby launching the development of a new medical school to train more doctors in BC.
When he was BC Minister of Health, Adrian Dix oversaw changes to the province’s agreement with the Doctors of BC, so that more operational expenses would be covered and that appointment time spent with patients was more attentively compensated. Dix also promoted the availability of the BC Health Connect Registry (an online portal where BC residents can indicate that they are without a family doctor).
Municipalities moving forward:
But for some communities with fast-growing populations the wait for more family doctors practising locally in their communities has been too slow.
In recent years, two west shore municipalities have stepped forward with their own customized solutions despite the now often-heard mantra that the Province is downloading the cost of provincial responsibilities onto municipalities.
- The City of Colwood recently launched model where they cover some premises costs and pay doctors as municipal staff (including benefits and pension) but where users of the clinic must be Colwood residents.
- In the City Langford, they have worked in collaboration with the South Island Primary Care Society (for doctors) and the Freemasons of Langford (for commercial space) to support a clinic. The City of Langford’s support for the new downtown clinic was first announced in June 2025.
There is an Island Health Urgent and Primary Care Clinic further along Goldstream Avenue in Langford that has been operating since 2018 but is almost always operating at full daily capacity.
Population growth:
Langford’s population is expected to reach 100,000 within the next 25 years. Housing construction and development of roads and service infrastructure (both physical and recreational) has been pretty much non-stop since 2008.
===== RELATED:
- Appointment triage by nurses for South Vancouver Island UPCCs through centralized phone system (October 23, 2025)
- BC Health to fund 10 doctors at new Langford clinic that municipality helped develop (June 17, 2025)
- New medical clinic supported by City of Langford (June 16, 2025)
- Not enough family doctors: where falls the political obligation? (December 28, 2024)
- Westshore Urgent Primary Care shifts to appointment booking by phone (March 18, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD | HEALTH | URGENT & PRIMARY CARE CENTERS | DOCTORS & NURSES