Family doctor crisis remains in B.C. as 400,000 residents continue to seek care 

Nearly 400,000 residents in British Columbia are still waiting to be connected to a family doctor, according to the latest report released in March by the B.C. Ministry of Health.  

In the 1990s, British Columbia had more family doctors than the province needed. However, by 2022, the situation had drastically changed. Over one million residents were living without access to a family doctor. While the B.C. government has been releasing plans and systems in response to the crisis, progress in fixing the issue has been slow.  

“I tried calling the clinics in my area, but I was waitlisted by all of them.” said Ida Mak, a Vancouver resident.  

Mak moved to Vancouver three years ago, and she has been searching for a family doctor ever since.  

“I’ve been on waitlists for over two years now and I still haven’t been able to get a family doctor. It’s like a never-ending cycle of searching.” 

Mak is just one of many British Columbians who have been affected by the family doctor shortage.  

Vancouver resident, Katharine Guerin says her family doctor passed away in the fall of 2023 and she has not been able to connect to a new doctor since.  She registered with BC’s Health Connect Registry this year in hopes of being connected with a new doctor or nurse practitioner, but she has not had any luck so far. 

“I moved to Vancouver in 2009 and was able to find a family doctor around that time, so there were family doctors accepting patients 10 to 15 years ago. Now there are not, so it’s definitely a problem that has increased.” 

Guerin says she has been using walk-in clinics to manage her healthcare needs as they arise, but it has been challenging as walk-in clinics are not always the most ideal solution. 

“The quality of care in walk-in clinics really varies from doctor to doctor. The appointments feel especially rushed there because they have so many patients to see.” She told 8forty. 

What exactly is causing the shortage? 

“It’s not because there aren’t enough family doctors in the province” stated by the BC Healthcare Matters Association, an advocacy group that supports doctors and patients across British Columbia. While the B.C. government is trying to recruit more family doctors for their province, the BC Healthcare Matters Association believes recruitment is not the only contributing factor to the crisis. 

One of the major concerns lies in how family doctors are compensated and supported. Before 2024, B.C. family doctors were the lowest paid doctors in all of Canada. On average, their annual salary ranges at around $250,000 with 25 to 30 percent of it being operation cost for their clinic. 

In a campaign done by the B.C. Family Doctors called “Speak Out for Family Medicine”, one of the key messages was to address the rising costs of operating family medicine clinics. 

“Funding for family medicine clinics comes from the fees paid to family doctors, but these fees have not kept pace with the costs of clinic operations, including staff salaries, lease costs, equipment, and supplies.” They stated. 

The province is also experiencing a wave of retiring doctors at the same time. As reported by the BC College of Family Physicians, 40 percent of family doctors are considering retirement or cutting down their work hours in the next five years.  

In addition, operating a clinic often involves more administrative work and responsibilities compared to working in a hospital setting. According to research done by the Canadian Medical Association, the percentage of Canadian medical graduates choosing to pursue a career in Family medicine has dropped from 38.5 percent in 2016 to 30.3 percent in 2023.  

How BC is working to solve the doctor shortage    

In 2023, a new system was introduced to the family doctors in B.C. in hopes of giving them better equitable compensation. The Longitudinal Family Physician (LFP) Payment Model aimed to create better support for doctors and patient care. It gives family doctors compensation based on their working time, the care they provide for patients, and the complexity of patients in their practice. With this model, more doctors were able to find a balance in their work and less difficulty in running their clinic.  

“Changing over to LFP did not really give me the opportunity to spend more time or expand my panel because I was already at full capacity. But what LFP did for me is it really compensated me for all the work I was already doing for free.” said Burnaby family physician Dr Leo Dai in a  interview with the Family Practice Services Committee, a team of representatives from Doctors of BC and other health authorities in BC. 

Since the release of the LFP model, over 1,000 new family doctors have joined the province, connecting nearly 250,000 residents to a family doctor. 

The B.C. government has been taking additional actions to attract doctors from the U.S. through fast tracking credential recognition and recruitment campaigns.  

Josie Osborne, BC’s health minister states, “We’re starting to make significant progress with more people connected to primary care providers in 2024 than ever before. There is still more to be done – and that’s why we are ramping up our efforts to recruit health-care workers from other jurisdictions.” 

Last year, HealthLink BC also launched the Provincial Attachment System (PAS), which allows the B.C. government to have a better understanding of clinic capacities across the province. PAS gives family doctors an option to upload their patient panel online allowing the system to indicate their clinic’s capacity to take in new patients. With this system, patients can receive faster attachment to doctors with less administrative work needed to be done by the family doctor clinics.  

While these changes to the healthcare system have led to some improvement, the family doctor crisis remains as a serious issue in British Columbia. For residents like Ida Mak and Katharine Guerin, the search for a family doctor is still left uncertain.  

“I don’t have anyone looking at my general health. I’m seeking care as things arise, as well as keeping up with my screenings, but I haven’t had a general check-up since 2023 or prior.” Guerin told 8forty.  “Everything is up to me now, and what do I know?”   

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