Critics say primary and emergency care centers (UPCC), one of the province’s promoted solutions to solve the crisis of GPs, are not close to meeting the needs of British Colombians.
The UPCC were the first introduced in 2018and designed to care for residents of a community, depending on the province, where they will receive team care from a physician, professional nurses, nurses, and other health professionals.
However, data from the Ministry of Health of the BC Ministry of Health, requested by the opposition BC Liberals and revealed to the legislature last week: they show that the staffing of most of BC’s 26 UPCCs is well below the approved levels and only about 20,000 patients are “attached” to the clinics.
“People often ask us, they are [UPCCs] a solution or are they part of the problem? ”said Camille Currie, founder and organizer of the BC Health Care Matters advocacy group.
“I think they are definitely not a solution to this crisis that we are facing. And in fact, they are possibly part of the problem.”
Currie says the UPCC is often booked as soon as it opens and has seen long morning lineups outside its local center on Vancouver Island.
With almost a million British Colombians without a family doctorand the crisis bearing a downstream effect in the rest of the province’s health care system, Currie says the UPCC is not doing the job the government said they would do.
“Right now they don’t cover the primary care needs of citizens in the way that the Ministry of Health made us believe they would do when they were first introduced.”
Cure the same day
The clinics are designed to care for patients with urgent but not urgent health problems. the same day they shout.
Phyllis Schwartz, a retired teacher living in Victoria, says she called her local UPCC as soon as they opened at 8 a.m. after feeling sick and failing the COVID-19 test last fall .
She says she finally finished at 8:35 a.m. but was told they were full for the day and would put her on the waiting list.
She was finally seen in the center 11 hours later, at 7:30 p.m.
“I’m disappointed because I think the concept is fantastic,” he said.
“In theory, this is ideal,” he adds, but “a lot of things have to be stopped and doctors have to be brought in.
“It’s almost like we need Doctors Without Borders in Victoria.”
Staff below targets
Vancouver Island is particularly affected by a shortage of staff at the UPCC and primary care facilities, according to ministry data released last week.
There are just over six full-time equivalent doctors at the UPCC in downtown Victoria, although more than 22 are approved for the center. There are no professional nurses in the facility either, although the budget has two.
It’s a similar story for many facilities in the province: the UPCC in Richmond, for example, should have 32 full-time equivalent doctors, but some days it only has one.
According to the data, the White Rock / South Surrey primary care network operates with only a third of the doctors required.
“These emergency primary care centers are understaffed,” said Todd Stone, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA and opposition leader.
“So they don’t add the capacity that is really needed to make sure that people can access primary care when they need it.”
Stone and Currie say government should invest more in existing GP practices, including modernization the service fee system.
The province says more than a million people have visited the UPCC since the initiative began and are continuing to open more to the entire province to meet the needs of primary care.
CBC News contacted Health Minister Adrian Dix to comment on the story, but did not respond within the deadline.