Back in 2010, Health Minister Kevin Falcon announced that every British Columbia resident would have a family doctor by the year 2015. Yet today, more than 220,000 residents in B.C. still don’t have a family doctor.
They rely on walk-in clinics for treatment, which means they face long line-ups and lack the continuity of care that comes from having a family doctor. It’s especially hard on elderly patients, or people with chronic conditions, who are more likely to slide into illness.
The University of British Columbia increased their graduating class of medical students to 288, but experts say the province needs to be about 450 new physicians annually to meet the demands.
In an editorial in Tri-Cities Now, family doctors are described as “the backbone of the medical system,” though they often lack the praise rained down on surgeons who save lives on a daily basis.
H/T Tri-Cities Now
