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
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.