Image Credit: Good Witch / W Network / Hallmark Channel

By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Family medicine is almost a thing of the past

Apr 22, 2022 | 4:38 AM

ALMOST ONE MILLION PEOPLE in our province are without a family doctor.

That’s one in five people who don’t have primary care. No one they can reach out to, to look after them.

In the Kamloops area, there are 6000 people on the 8-1-1 government waiting list for a doctor.

We’ve tried to address the problem in a number of ways. We’ve increased the number of spaces in medical schools. But many of those graduates don’t go into family medicine. So it’s only a partial solution.

We’ve opened up Urgent Primary Care Centres, like the one at Royal Inland Hospital, filled with a variety of specialists, kind of like one-stop shopping. My grandchild suffered a moderate concussion when kicked in the head playing goal at a soccer tournament in Hope. We were able to get an appointment at Urgent Care, and the treatment was terrific. But the UPCC is only open from 5:00-9:00 PM. so its value is somewhat limited. And caregivers there don’t have any sense of the long-term medical history of a patient, which is where a family doctor has so much value.

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While we know that doctors and nurses in hospitals have been run off their feet, so too have family physicians. And family docs, like most specialists, have turned to phone appointments, which is the new way of practicing because of COVID.

It’s fine for basic things but personal contact is critical.

On a personal exam, a doctor can see the change in the condition of a mole on the back of a neck that may have turned cancerous, spotting markers that lead to a colonoscopy, possibly avoiding colon cancer. Or just providing the emotional support a patient needs at a critical point in their lives.

Family doctors do this for very low pay for long hours, and this problem is only going to get worse.

Family doctors are retiring more quickly than they’re being replaced. We need to provide the funding not only to open spaces, but funding to help them through school, and funding to give them a decent living for the long hours they put in. Maybe even extra money if they commit to working in rural areas.

Rural medicine today is not as it’s pictured in the Hallmark Movies. We need to pay these doctors what they’re worth. And it’s a lot more than they get now.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.