Community Articles
General News · 26th October 2023
Bernice
Dear Community,
As you all know, the Cortes Community Health Association and our Health Centre, will be facing challenges over the next year. We are writing to you all with a progress note and will keep you all informed as we work through each of these new opportunities.
On October 13, 2023, three Board members and the Health Centre administrator met with Island Health (Vancouver Island Health Authority) management and medical directors.
Here is a summary of what we learned:
Island Health (IH) is actively recruiting for a clinician for our clinic, either a Physician, Physician group, or a Nurse Practitioner (NP). Our position is that a physician-led full-time practice is the best option for this community, but we will need to consider other options, including a Nurse Practitioner, in the event that there are no physicians willing to take over the practice full-time. We must find a way to make Cortes an attractive community for primary practitioners; this may need to include looking for community funding to fill gaps.
We heard that IH is facing challenges with recruitment in similar communities and, sadly, they are not hopeful we will get a group or single physician willing to take over the practice. We are discussing ideas for increased incentives and new practice models, however, recent changes in the province have made rural practice and locums less attractive than practice in larger areas.
We informed them of several collateral issues that impact our clinic which need to be addressed and taken into account, including:
● Increasing clinic usage and patient complexity due to our aging population, socioeconomic factors, the retirement of a local psychiatrist and the Nurse Practitioner on Quadra
● Lack of physician support with the full time RN position only filled part time and no Home Care nurse for over a year
● Difficulty finding locum coverage has meant occasional weeks without any physician
● Physicians are required by their professional College to be available to provide consultation for locums, this creates overworked physicians and could lead to burnout
Please understand that Physician and Health Centre funding is very complex and there are several different models. Although IH has an expectation that the government will be raising the 'salaries' of doctors on these types of contracts to be competitive with urban areas in spring 2024 we don’t know if this will make us more attractive.
Overall, we found it a positive, though sobering, meeting and have agreed to meet regularly with Island Health to work toward solutions. We have a positive working relationship with both our physician group and with Island Health. We strongly encourage community members to write our MLA and the Health Minister directly, with your concerns about factors beyond the local ones that impact our situation. One of our Board members is drafting some example letters which will be available to the community, more on this in the future update.
The current physicians have been trying to recruit their replacements from among visiting locums and we will continue reaching out to current and past locums as to whether there is any interest in being part of a longer-term practice here.
If community members have comments or suggestions, please put them in writing either in a letter which can be dropped off at the clinic, addressed to the Board, or emailed to admincorteshealth.com
Some other resources:
https://bchealthcarematters.com
https://bcfamilydocs.ca/change-starts-here/our-views/
https://bcruralhealth.org/
As you all know, the Cortes Community Health Association and our Health Centre, will be facing challenges over the next year. We are writing to you all with a progress note and will keep you all informed as we work through each of these new opportunities.
On October 13, 2023, three Board members and the Health Centre administrator met with Island Health (Vancouver Island Health Authority) management and medical directors.
Here is a summary of what we learned:
Island Health (IH) is actively recruiting for a clinician for our clinic, either a Physician, Physician group, or a Nurse Practitioner (NP). Our position is that a physician-led full-time practice is the best option for this community, but we will need to consider other options, including a Nurse Practitioner, in the event that there are no physicians willing to take over the practice full-time. We must find a way to make Cortes an attractive community for primary practitioners; this may need to include looking for community funding to fill gaps.
We heard that IH is facing challenges with recruitment in similar communities and, sadly, they are not hopeful we will get a group or single physician willing to take over the practice. We are discussing ideas for increased incentives and new practice models, however, recent changes in the province have made rural practice and locums less attractive than practice in larger areas.
We informed them of several collateral issues that impact our clinic which need to be addressed and taken into account, including:
● Increasing clinic usage and patient complexity due to our aging population, socioeconomic factors, the retirement of a local psychiatrist and the Nurse Practitioner on Quadra
● Lack of physician support with the full time RN position only filled part time and no Home Care nurse for over a year
● Difficulty finding locum coverage has meant occasional weeks without any physician
● Physicians are required by their professional College to be available to provide consultation for locums, this creates overworked physicians and could lead to burnout
Please understand that Physician and Health Centre funding is very complex and there are several different models. Although IH has an expectation that the government will be raising the 'salaries' of doctors on these types of contracts to be competitive with urban areas in spring 2024 we don’t know if this will make us more attractive.
Overall, we found it a positive, though sobering, meeting and have agreed to meet regularly with Island Health to work toward solutions. We have a positive working relationship with both our physician group and with Island Health. We strongly encourage community members to write our MLA and the Health Minister directly, with your concerns about factors beyond the local ones that impact our situation. One of our Board members is drafting some example letters which will be available to the community, more on this in the future update.
The current physicians have been trying to recruit their replacements from among visiting locums and we will continue reaching out to current and past locums as to whether there is any interest in being part of a longer-term practice here.
If community members have comments or suggestions, please put them in writing either in a letter which can be dropped off at the clinic, addressed to the Board, or emailed to admincorteshealth.com
Some other resources:
https://bchealthcarematters.com
https://bcfamilydocs.ca/change-starts-here/our-views/
https://bcruralhealth.org/