In an effort to address the province’s crippling family physician shortage, BC’s Ministry of Health signed contracts with 54 new family doctors to provide full-service primary care across the province..Those who sign the contract will, for the first year, receive a $25,000 signing bonus on top of their base $295,457, as well as medical training debt forgiveness of up to $50,000 for the first year and up to $20,000 for years two to five..The doctors will also receive a $75,000 payment to be used as a contribution toward overhead costs for their host clinic..The incentives are part of BC’s Health Human Resources Strategy to “improve and increase access to healthcare.”.Among the strategy is a $118-million stabilization fund to support BC’s already working family physicians..The lack of access to primary care in the province has been a focal point for the BC Liberals, who’ve regularly highlighted in recent months one-million British Columbians are currently without a family doctor and remain unable to get one..After months of what he calls “inaction and failure” with respect to the province’s healthcare crisis, BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon called on the BC New Democrat's Minister of Health Adrian Dix to officially resign from his role this week..READ MORE: 'Inaction and failure': BC Liberals call on Dix to resign.As for British Columbians who do have access to a family doctor, nearly half are worried they will be lost to practice closure or retirement, according to an April poll released by the BC College of Family Physicians..However the BC NDP previously highlighted there were 437,000 British Columbians unattached to a primary care practitioner in 2003, doubling to 897,000 by 2017 when John Horgan became premier, noting the problem "didn't start yesterday” and therefore shouldn’t be blamed on the current government..An example of the province’s demand for family doctors and just how lucrative the job can be was recently on display in Britain, when in September the United Kingdom’s Royal College of General Practitioners advertised a job based in BC paying a £316,000 salary, which translates to more than $425,000 Canadian..“The clinic is owned by a former UK GP, who will make your transition to Canada easy,” the job posting read..There’s also increased opportunity for internationally trained nurses, and the provincial government is spending millions advertising BC as a “desirable destination” for foreign trained healthcare workers..COVID-19 vaccination remains enforced for a variety of BC healthcare professionals, including community physicians, and neither Health Minister Adrian Dix nor Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry offer a timeline as to when the mandate will be lifted..In August a group of 50 BC-based family doctors paid for a digital billboard display on the West Kelowna stretch of BC’s Highway 97 that read, “Terminated, unvaccinated doctors willing to serve you the public today. Allow us to do our part to help BC’s collapsing healthcare.”.Nonetheless, health officials maintain their position the mandate is doing more good than bad for the the healthcare system.
