June 24, 2010
All Northern Families to Have a Family Doctor by 2015

PRINCE GEORGE – The provincial government is committing a $137-million investment to strengthen service delivery, ensure patients are full participants in their care and provide every British Columbian who wants a family doctor with one by 2015, including all residents across the North.

“Today’s provincial health announcement fits in perfectly with our shared vision for northern health,” says Prince George-MacKenzie MLA Pat Bell. “We want to ensure every British Columbian has access to their own family doctor that provides the needed personal attention and familiarity with a patient’s medical history. That is a proven strategy for improving proactive care, health outcomes, and the sustainability of our overall health care system.” 

“Ten years ago this week, northern health care was in crisis as we held a 7000-strong community rally to declare that we had had enough and we wanted solutions,” says Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond. “Since that time, we have seen a decade of immense improvement in the delivery of northern health services. Today’s announcement is one more major step in that positive direction.”

“We have seen the Northern Medical Program become a reality in which medical students become trained physicians at UNBC and go on to practice right here in the North,” adds Bond.

The Northern Health Program has an intake of 32 students per year with plans to grow even further.

“As part of recognizing the tenth anniversary of the historic northern health rally, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed this week between the Northern Health Authority and UNBC to move even further in improving health services for the North,” says Bell.

“This is a significant statement about the work on primary care that Prince George has done,” says Bond. “We have led the province and now we see our health delivery teams serving as a template for other communities in British Columbia. I am very proud of the leadership that our health-care professionals have demonstrated and today's announcement reflects that outstanding work.”

The Memorandum of Understanding agrees to: "further education, research and innovation for the purpose of improving the quality of life for people who live in the North. It may include health provider and professional education, population health research, clinical research, aboriginal health, information sharing and database and policy development."

“It is about making the patient experience as smooth and streamlined as possible with a goal of consistent, correct care from a family physician throughout the patient’s life,” suggests Bond.

This unique integrated model of primary and community care will see family physicians working in collaboration with the Province, the BC Medical Association (BCMA), the Northern Health Authority and other health-care professionals, including medical specialists, to provide better care for patients with chronic diseases, seniors and complex health needs.

The objective is clear, all British Columbians will have access to a family physician but the Province will also focus on specific patient groups. Under the new primary health care, high needs patients, frail seniors and patients with chronic diseases will be provided with enhanced care planning and support with an individualized and coordinated personal medical health-care plan linking together various health professionals to provide better quality care.

The team could include the family physician, medical specialists, nurses, pharmacists and other allied health professionals. For a patient receiving home care, their support staff will be directly linked to their family doctor and the extended health care team to better coordinate care. Patients with higher needs will have access to innovative models of care. This will include faster access to medical consultations with specialists with the introduction of a new payment mechanism that will allow family physicians to get immediate telephone access to a medical specialist for a telephone consultation.

A key part of the new primary health-care initiative at the community level is the introduction of Divisions of Family Practice. Divisions of Family Practice provide a practical way for family physicians to work collaboratively as a group with regional health authorities and other community partners to provide the best care possible for patients, especially patients with higher needs such as mental illness, frailties and chronic diseases.

Each participating division will make it easier for patients who do not have a family physician to find one. Divisions of Family Practice will provide a one stop call to assist people who arrive in a new community to find a family doctor. The same type of link would work for patients without a family doctor who arrive in the emergency department and are given the contact information for the division in order to get a family doctor of their own. Family doctors will also use new innovations to build on their capacity to take on additional patients. This could involve offering group consultations for patients with chronic diseases instead of the traditional one-on-one consultation. The minister also hopes that this could include the broader use of nurse practitioners in integrated primary and community care and will ask the BCMA to explore this with government.

The move to a more integrated primary health care system will be a partnership between the health authority and the Divisions of Family Practice. Initially, this integrated care program will launch in up to eight communities including Prince George. By March 2011, integration will have begun in more than 40 communities and regions of the province and, by 2015, the program will be available in more than 160 B.C. communities, covering the entire province.

The shift in primary health-care is part of the innovation and change agenda to improve patient care while managing growing health care costs and ensuring sustainability. In April, the Province launched patient-focused funding to initially offer hospitals financial incentives to deliver acute care services for a competitive, set price. In the second year, the Province will look at expanding patient-focused funding to support primary health care.

Visit Shirley’s website at www.shirleybondmla.bc.ca

Visit Pat’s website at www.patbellmla.bc.ca

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