Vancouver Island community contemplates offering pensions to attract doctors
The supplies are all in place at Pure Medical Clinic in Colwood, but the beds in the examination rooms remain covered in plastic.
The facility has been largely finished since October, but it still hasn’t opened for patients yet, because it’s missing one key ingredient: doctors.
In fact, the fast growing city of 22,000 people still doesn’t have a single GP practicing longitudinal care, and is taking an innovative approach to the problem. It’s looking at doing the administrative work the clinic – including payroll and human resources – to free up physicians to practice medicine.
“Doctors are good at doctoring, right? The city is good at administering,” said Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi on Thursday.
Another bold idea by Kobayashi: offering doctors pensions paid by the province or even, perhaps, partly by the city.
“(If) we do a portion of it, you know, what is the contribution?” he mused. “We could certainly administer how would it work.”
And the idea of a pension just gained steam for many doctors after the federal government proposed new capital inclusion rates that will effectively reduce retirement savings for those small business operators – including doctors – who rely on investments in lieu of a pension.
Jesse Pewarchuk is a physician who also runs a medical clinic in View Royal. He is consulting the City of Colwood on how to operate the Pure Medical Clinic, and how best to attract and retain family doctors in the community. He says the recent, proposed capital gains rules will be a huge problem for doctors if the federal government’s budget is passed and the new rules go ahead as planned.
“For younger physicians, this is devastating for our ability to retire, our ability to save for retirement,” said Pewarchuk on Thursday.
The Canadian Medical Association has asked Ottawa to reconsider the new capital gains rules, which it also says will hamper doctor recuitment and retention.
Pewarchuk says offering a pension could be the solution.
“It would be a game changer,” he says.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix says compensation packages are negotiated with the group Doctors of B.C., not individual communities. He points to the success of the latest deal, a payment model for doctors that has been credited with attracting more than 700 family doctors province-wide and 179 new GP’s to Vancouver Island this year.
“The place where we negotiate with the Doctors of B.C. is a provincial table, and we’ve just had the most successful round, for patients,” Dix said.
Still, despite inroads, there remain close to 900,000 British Columbians without a family doctor, a problem causing leaders in Colwood to think outside the box about attracting them to their community.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
NEW Iconic Canadian song turns 50
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
Prince Harry, Meghan arrive in Nigeria to champion the Invictus Games and meet with wounded soldiers
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, arrived in Nigeria on Friday to champion the Invictus Games, which he founded to aid the rehabilitation of wounded and sick servicemembers and veterans, among them Nigerian soldiers fighting a 14-year war against Islamic extremists.
Countries struggle to draft 'pandemic treaty' to avoid mistakes made during COVID
After the coronavirus pandemic triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions, leaders at the World Health Organization and worldwide vowed to do better in the future. Years later, countries are still struggling to come up with an agreed-upon plan for how the world might respond to the next global outbreak.
Toronto police called to Drake's Bridle Path mansion for another alleged intruder on Thursday
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Flat tire on a highway? Here's why you shouldn't try to fix it
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Storm-battered U.S. South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.