Tuesday July 4, 2023 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc. | Island Social Trends
Update July 5, 2023: “On July 1, 2023, with new family doctors and nurse practitioners ready to accept patients, the Province expanded the Health Connect Registry, hosted by HealthLink BC, from select communities to all communities throughout B.C. People will be connected to a primary-care provider based on their health needs, the provider’s ability to take on those needs, and the region.” This puts the doctors in charge of fleshing out their patient panels to suit their career interests. If you really want or need a family doctor, how do you effectively say ‘pick me’? | Read full details in BC Health July 5, 2023 news release.
The BC Health Connect Registry has for months been collecting names of people seeking family doctors. It’s been part of the health ministry’s effort to identify who needs a doctor and to match those folks up with available general practitioners (GPs).
Tomorrow a broader announcement will come with more details about the BC Health Connect Registry — the level of intake, the success with suitable matching of would-be patients with doctors, and how patient-matching has been prioritized (by age, condition, family situation, location, etc).
People might expect an email or other form of communication about the availability of one or more doctors in their area.
Perhaps leaning to seniors & chronic illness:
A few months ago, Health Minister Adrian Dix told Island Social Trends that perhaps seniors and people with existing chronic health conditions might be first in the patient-doctor-matching queue.
He said that perhaps people in their younger adult years aren’t seeking to be attached to a family doctor quite so much as older folks or those with known conditions. “People access family doctors differently… at different times in their lives,” Dix said today in the media portion of an announcement about redevelopment of the hospital in Williams Lake.
Broadening the patient panel:
Today he updated that a bit, saying today’s doctors — including new ones coming onstream who didn’t practice in 2020 or 2021 — will need a “broader patient panel”.
“Of course, young families need a family doctor,” said Dix today, and that seniors much the same. Those are broad statements, with more details expected in an official announcement tomorrow (July 5).
Doctor shortage:
Whereas the number of British Columbians known to be without a family doctor was up to about one million a few years ago, Dix has recently said it’s now more like 900,000.
That’s still a significant shortfall for the delivery of universal health care given the important of how GPs are the frontline access for people to acquire medical care.
The BC doctor shortage has been a political football in the province, including the recent by-election in Langford-Juan de Fuca where the issue was part of the BC Green candidate’s platform.
More to come.