'Clearly there is something wrong': Vancouver Island family doctor crisis deepens as thousands lose medical care
The new year brought bad news for the mayor of View Royal, B.C., and about 4,500 other newly abandoned medical patients.
Mayor David Screech and his wife recently learned two family doctors at the Eagle Creek Medical Clinic were dissolving their practice on April 15.
This also means that the View Royal clinic, which will still host several other family doctors, will shut down its walk-in services in April.
"It's a real worry to know you just join all those who don't have a GP," said Screech.
A statement from the clinic says, "Dr. George Zabakolas and Dr. Chelsie Velikovsky have decided to stop practising longitudinal family medicine in Victoria permanently."
The clinic also said its walk-in service was barely able to handle caseloads with a full stable of doctors, and it would not be able to cope with the roughly 3,000 patients the pair of physicians will leave behind.
"Clearly there is something wrong with our system when we have two relatively young GPs leave because the system isn't working for them," Screech told CTV News.
Adding to medical woes in the capital region, the Burnside Family Medical Clinic recently sent letters to between 1,500 and 1,700 patients saying their family GP has decided to retire.
"We are trying to care for those patients as best we can in our walk-in clinic, but that too is overwhelmed and short of doctors," the clinic said in an email.
MEDICAL CRISIS
Dr. Matthew Ward is the medical director of the Eagle Creek Medical Clinic.
He says the pair of doctors are leaving for a myriad of reasons, but pay is a major factor.
"It's hard to be a family doctor in the CRD right now," said Dr. Ward. "Costs are incredibly high and there is an inadequate fee-for-service system."
A current agreement with the B.C. government pays family doctors $31.62 per appointment. That number can change due to a patient's age and medical needs, according to Ward.
He says the pay system is outdated, especially in a place like the capital region, where commercial rent, business overhead costs and the cost of living are so high.
A provincial financial statement outlining doctors' pay shows in the fiscal year ending in March 2020, the two young doctors leaving the Eagle Creek clinic raked in $421,301.09.
Dr. Ward says while it appears family doctors are still highly paid professionals in our society, the costs which come out of their take-home pay, is immense and causing the exodus.
"The lack of access to longitudinal community-based family doctors is a crisis," Dr. Ward said. "There is no other way to describe it."
According to the organization Doctors of BC, the average pay for a family physician in the province is $279,266.
The group says doctors must then use those dollars to pay staff salaries, office rent, utilities and equipment rentals and maintenance.
Doctors of BC estimates about 35 to 40 per cent of a family doctor's pay disappears before they ever see it.
CHANGE ON THE HORIZON?
Change for doctors, and potentially patients, on Vancouver Island could be on the horizon as the Doctors of BC has started a new round negotiation with the province about pay.
Last updated in 2019, the Physician Master Plan (PMA) is currently being discussed between the B.C. government and doctors.
A looming agreement could increase the per-appointment fee from $31.62, though the doctors' lobby group is also working to find other ways to attract medical experts to B.C.
For the medically abandoned, like Mayor David Screech, these negotiations will be a key point of interest as he hopes a new doctor will arrive in the region and welcome him into the exam room.
"Who knows where we'll be in 10 years if we don't stop this exodus," said Screech.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
LeBlanc says he plans to run in next election, under Trudeau's leadership
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
Sports columnist apologizes for 'oafish' comments directed at Caitlin Clark. The controversy isn’t over
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Health Canada to change sperm donor screening rules for men who have sex with men
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
U.S. vetoes a widely supported UN resolution backing full membership for Palestine
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Bayer recalls hydraSense baby product over 'potential contamination'
Bayer announced Thursday it is recalling two lots of its hydraSense Baby Nasal Care Easydose due to a potential contamination.
N.L. gardening store revives 19th century seed-packing machine
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Cat found on Toronto Pearson airport runway 3 days after going missing
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Grandparent scam suspects had ties to Italian organized crime, police allege
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.