B.C. election: Could a health-care deal stabilize a minority government?

With the final results of the B.C. election still pending, speculation is rampant about what concessions the Greens might ask for to prop up a potential NDP minority – and it could be a common philosophy about health care that ultimately helps forge an alliance.

Both parties touted the importance of primary care on the campaign trail, and the idea of team-based medicine could be a win-win issue for them to focus on going forward.

B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau told reporters Wednesday that it was too early to begin negotiating without the vote count completed, but that her platform would be a starting point for talks. She has advocated for what she’s dubbed the “Dogwood Model” of primary care, a team-based care model already in place in pockets of British Columbia and Ontario. 

The New Democrats are already philosophically aligned.

Leader David Eby insisted he’s more interested in connecting British Columbians with a family doctor rather than making it easier for physicians to provide episodic care for more patients at walk-in clinics, and often reiterated the NDP’s success in recruiting physicians with a new payment model. His health minister has also touted the benefits of primary care, and his support for team-based care during his tenure. 

Doubling down on the group practices could be beneficial for both leaders: Furstenau could log a policy promise delivered, while Eby would be able to connect more patients with a primary care provider and count it as a win.

FAMILY DOCTORS KEEN

In the last several years, a number of family doctors have suggested “patient medical homes,” where physicians work alongside nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and mental health professionals, for example, to provide whatever medical care the patient needs on a given day.

Before Eby’s tenure as premier, the focus was on Urgent Primary Care Centres, where doctors and nurse practitioners are employed directly by health authorities in clinics run by those health authorities. They work on salary and have proven to be unpopular workplaces, with staffing issues persisting over several years. 

Dr. Jennifer Lush, who runs a patient medical home out of her private practice in Victoria, points out she doesn’t need all her allied health-care colleauges to be in the same building to provide wrap-around care, and she’s keen to discuss the idea of the Dogwood model if the two parties find common cause.

“We know the model that works but it's about removing barriers, it's about improving funding and other clinical, supports,” said Lush. “Time and time again primary care is proven to be the most cost-effective way of delivering healthcare.”

HOW LIKELY IS DOGWOOD TO BE A SHARED PRIORITY?

On Tuesday, Eby told reporters that he’d talked to Furstenau, who told him she wasn’t ready to negotiate, and that as far as he was concerned, “nothing’s off the table.”

Considering his government is already making some progress on primary care, Lush hopes the two leaders can have a co-operative relationship that benefits health-care providers and patients alike.

“The B.C. College of Family Physicians does not want to see the health care of British Columbians used as a political bargaining chip,” she said. “I think regardless of the party, all politicians should be working together with physicians to design an effective primary care system that'll restore universal access.”