File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

FAMILY DOCTORS

Kamloops doctors hope new payment model will help attract and retain family physicians

Oct 31, 2022 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — In British Columbia, one in five people are without a family doctor. In Kamloops, that number doubles to two in five or 40 per cent of the population.

Monday’s (Oct. 31) announcement from the B.C. government to overhaul the fee structure for family doctors comes as the p

rovince is searching for ways to attract and retain physicians.

The Thompson Region Division of Family Practice released the following statement, supporting the new pay structure and master agreement.

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“I think it will serve family practice much better than the current model and will encourage people to get into longitudinal family practice. There will now actually be some financial incentive and benefit to doing, or so it seems,” said Dr. Lennard Pretorius, a family physician and Division board member.

The new payment model will allow family doctors to bill at an hourly rate for the time spent with patients, for time spent on indirect care and clinical administrative work, and for the number of encounters and the total number of patients they support on their panels.

“This new model is valuing what family doctors do, but also giving them an ability to create more capacity. In a sense when we are addressing your burdens or your administrative tasks and allowing to be compensated for that time that takes time away from our patients allows us to potentially build more capacity in our health care settings especially in our clinic setting to do that,” said Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, President of Doctors of B.C.

Payments will also now be based in part on the complexity of those patient encounters.

In Kamloops where family doctors are harder to find than the provincial average, Dr. Dosanjh believes the new model and agreement should help bring down the discrepancy.

“I’ve been to Kamloops and I’ve seen on the ground for myself and connected with many of my physician colleagues, both family doctors and specialists that are definitely feeling the crunch and the burden of lack of access to primary care, and especially family doctors for our patients there,” added Dosanjh.

“We expect and hope that this will convince all the doctors that are currently in practice but also help to recruit some more family doctors. Whether that is through residency spots or new to practice, but also some of me colleagues that are not currently providing longitudinal primary care the ability to go back and do that now.”

The new structure will take effect in February 2023.