Camille Curry has less than a year of battery life on her pacemaker and has no family doctor.
The resident of Greater Victoria and mother of two says she also has bleeding and connective tissue disorders that would make postoperative care a challenge when she does change the battery. If she has problems with her treatment, she fears she will have to go to the Emergency and Primary Care Center (UPCC).
Curry also says both of her children have a rare auto-inflammatory disease.
Still, she and her family are among nearly a million British Colombians without a family doctor. According to the College of Family Physicians of BC, only 80% of the residents of the capital’s regional district have one, compared to 84% of the people in the entire province.
According to Canadian technology company Medimap, which publishes online waiting times for clinics, British Columbians wait an average of 58 minutes in clinics to visit – more than twice the national average. Victoria had the longest average waiting time in the country – more than 2½ hours.
CBC talks to patients, doctors and others affected by the shortage for a special series entitled “Crisis in Care: The Shortage of Family Physicians in Greater Victoria” to explore the roots of the problem and one problem that has recurred was BC’s service charge system.
Current system leading to burnout doctor
The service fee is a care system that pays doctors for each visit to the office.
People familiar with the way it works say that the large amount of administrative work doctors need to receive a salary – combined with the low salary it generates – discourages doctors from practicing family medicine, and this creates an urgent need for family doctors and reliance on emergency departments and clinics.
“BC does not provide us with universal health care,” Curry told CBC’s All Points West on Tuesday.
A new study shows that residents in the Greater Victoria area wait on average longer than anywhere else in the country to gain access to clinics and are on average less likely to have a family doctor than British Colombians living elsewhere. the province. (Mike MacArthur / CBC)
11: 12A Crisis in care: Consequences for patients when family practices close
Camille Curry was one of thousands of people who lost their family doctor when two doctors left the Eagle Creek clinic at View Royal. Her experience prompted her to stand up, advocate and create the BC Health Care Matters Facebook page and website. She’s talking to Robin Burns. 11:12
But Victoria’s doctor Jennifer Lush is trying.
Lush has been a family doctor for 20 years and understands why others would choose not to be. Most doctors receive about $ 30 per patient visit and Lush pays for staff, medical equipment and office space.
She says she works 70 hours a week and struggles with work-life balance.
Half of the hours Lush spends are unpaid, she says, because they are spent working with documents.
“As soon as my children are in bed, I take out my computer and start making graphics. I will often make schedules until two or three in the morning, “Lush told CBC On The Island on Tuesday.
It is possible in BC, but only if the family dock works for free. Now, if the government pays the doctor for all the work done, after hours, that would be a step towards bringing doctors back into family medicine. https://t.co/hjJ537BYuY
– @ DrJLush
Comparable to the minimum wage
A report published in the Canadian Family Physician Journal in November 2021 found that future physicians choose more hospital work and specialized practice than family medicine – in part because they are concerned about the implications of the BC model service charge for work-life balance. privacy.
Alicia Pavlyuk became a doctor in 2018 and works in a hospital together with the treatment of patients at the Cool Aid Community Health Center in Victoria.
She says that under the current system, the family doctor’s income is comparable to the minimum wage.
“The average doctor ends up with about $ 200,000 in debt. The minimum wage will not be able to cover the type of payments we have to make, “Pavlyuk said.
In May 2020, the College of Family Physicians in Canada called for alternative funding models to replace the service charge method to hire and retain more family physicians.
British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix has said linking people to a family doctor has been his “highest priority” since taking office in 2017.
To reduce the administrative burden for doctors and help people who do not have one, Dix’s ministry is investing in the UPCC to provide non-emergency support. He said the province is also increasing the use of alternative payment methods to attract more family doctors.
“The will of doctors and others to work with us to reform and improve the system is there and we need to do it,” Dix told CBC On The Island on Thursday.
On the Island 11:21 Today we start our series “Crisis in care – the shortage of family doctors in Greater Victoria.” This morning we will hear why GPs are moving away from private practice in our community.
Gregor Craigie talks to CBC history producer Jean Paetcau about the challenges of being a family doctor under the service charge system. 11:21
“I didn’t get this care too late”
The change may not come soon enough for Joy Williamson, who has been without a doctor for eight years. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, she believes she would have been caught earlier if she had.
“I got this care too late,” said Williamson, who explained that the cancer had reached her lymph nodes by the time it was discovered, and she had to have her entire breast removed instead of a lumpectomy.
Joy Williamson believes the lack of a family doctor has delayed her diagnosis of breast cancer. (Submitted by Joy Williamson)
The day before the operation, Williamson was worried she had a blood infection and said she had been driving around Greater Victoria with her husband and two children for hours searching for the incomplete UPCC. Eventually, she waited five hours in the emergency room for a diagnosis.
Curry hears how frustrating this is at first hand. She created BC Health is importanta website where patients can petition for change and share their stories.
These stories include parents who waited eight hours in an emergency with sick children, and an elderly couple with mobility problems who lined up for hours, several days in a row, at the UPCC, which is constantly full.
As the time approaches for Curry’s upcoming operation, her own fear grows.
“This pacemaker will end and I can only pray that I can trust the system,” she said.
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