File Photo (Image Credit: Flickr / Province of B.C.)

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: Prospect of structural change to family doctor pay more promising than funding

Aug 26, 2022 | 10:28 AM

THE PROVINCIAL FUNDING FOR FAMILY PHYSICIANS announced this week is a good sign — but not even the best piece of news coming out of that announcement.

The funding itself is $118 million spread between the thousands of family doctors in B.C., averaging about $25,000 per.

That money goes toward covering the overhead costs of running a clinic, something that can cost doctors as much as 30 per cent of their billing income.

It’s meant to tide them over for a four-month period until the end of next January.

By that time, Health Minister Adrian Dix promises the government will have a new compensation model in place for B.C. family physicians.

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And that second part is the most promising piece of news.

The funding model in B.C. is preventing this province from keeping up with other jurisdictions when it comes to recruitment and retention.

Doctors are picking other provinces, they’re trying to work in other settings, or they’re choosing to take extra training to become specialists, because being a general practitioner in a family practice is simply not as economically feasible as it should be.

That’s a big reason 1-million British Columbians don’t have family doctors — because there aren’t enough of them.

Creating a new funding model is hopeful because it suggests the provincial government, finally, is interested in fixing a problem at its foundation rather than just throwing money at it.

It takes a good deal of political will to take this approach because it doesn’t yield immediate results that can be highlighted during an election campaign.

A big number is easy to point to and quantify; a structural change less so.

That’s why rebuilding a provincially provided system after it’s stripped down to the studs doesn’t happen very often, even if it’s desperately needed.

It’s not going to pay off immediately, but it could pay off in a matter of years.

If the health minister is going to do this overhaul, it suggests it could be done in other ministries.

Could we see big, structural changes to the criminal justice system, for example? Mental health and substance use policy? Indigenous relations? Environment and climate change?

Or could Dix look at other structural changes to improve recruitment within his own ministry, such as emergency coverage in rural hospitals?

One example of things trending in the right direction shouldn’t give us too much hope, but it’s hard not to see some optimism from this week’s announcement.

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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.