Health-care rally draws hundreds to B.C. legislature

VICTORIA -

As a growing number of British Columbians can’t find a primary care provider, hundreds of demonstrators demanded more health-care resources at a “Rally for Change” at the legislature.

The gathering was organized by B.C. Health Care Matters, a patient-led advocacy group, that encouraged attendees to wear white if they have a family doctors and black if they do not at the event they planned for World Family Doctor Day.

“Words can hardly describe how it feels to see so many people come out and join us in this cause,” said group founder Camille Curry, telling attendees that legislators inside were talking about the demonstration and their concerns. “They are talking about family doctors, they are sharing statements about the importance of this crisis.”

Speakers shared stories about difficulties accessing primary care and lost loved ones who didn’t get medical attention in time to prevent serious illnesses and deaths.

“This shortage is killing people,” said one.

Physicians also attended, many of them wearing stethoscopes to indicate their role. Among them were members of a new grassroots organization composed of family and specialist physicians, called Family Doctors for Patient Care in B.C. They presented MLAs with a document that made suggestions while bluntly telling them that they “are becoming extinct because of provincial health policies targeted at B.C.’s access to a family doctor.”

“Rather than specializing in one disease or body system, we have chosen to specialize in the patient as a whole,” Dr. Jennifer Lush told the crowd.

“Therefore, we deserve to have a seat at the table in any discussion if primary care reform.”

An estimated one-in-five people cannot find a family doctor despite British Columbia having a high number of trained physicians per capita. The province pays physicians per patient visit, which doctors say doesn’t account for patients who need more time and care, and has not kept up with their expenses nor the increasingly complex needs of the population; family doctors must also run their own business under the current model, which is time-consuming and pays significantly less per hour than hospital work. 

“They promised us they would provide team-based primary care,” said haematologist Dr. Adrian Yee of past government statements.

“They have not delivered … people cannot access essential primary care in our communities.” 

The premier and health minister met with Doctors of B.C. on Tuesday to discuss the escalating crisis and claimed to make progress on their issues, with the doctors’ association revealing the premier hinted there could be a tangible financial commitment in the works. At that meeting, the premier acknowledged the situation is “dire.”

But that discussion came on the heels of Health Minister Adrian Dix enraging family doctors after he told the interim Liberal leader that nurse practitioners provide better care because they spend more time with patients, prompting a rare rebuke from organizations representing the province’s primary care physicians.