Province takes more actions to strengthen primary care for people
Press Release
April 11, 2024
VICTORIA – Patients looking for a family physician or a nurse practitioner will be better supported, as the Province provides an update on the work already underway and introduces new digital tools for providers to improve and speed up the connection process.
“Last year we made a commitment to better connect people with primary care providers, and we’re doing just that,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “We said we would get a better understanding of current primary care needs and capacity, and we have. We’ve been working closely with our partners, and for the first time ever, we now know how many providers can take on new patients. This is significant progress that we’ll build on with more actions to keep connecting more people to a family doctor or nurse practitioner.”
On April 17, 2024, the Province will introduce new digital tools within the Provincial Attachment System to better link patients with family physicians and nurse practitioners. This will significantly speed up the matching and attachment of patients with available primary-care providers. An expanded team of 70 attachment co-ordinators linked with HealthLink BC will use the new digital tools that will make it faster and easier for them to connect people to a primary-care provider. In the past, this process was done manually.
Patients will be able to receive regular updates and have the option to provide up-to-date information on their health status.
This next step builds from three new registries announced in July 2023 that are now fully developed, as part of the Provincial Attachment System. It will provide better understanding of the capacity and need for primary-care services in B.C., and will help attach more people to primary-care providers.
To date, more than 87%, or over 4,500 family physicians and nurse practitioners have provided information on their patient panels. Nearly 1,600 clinics have also provided their information.
Since 2018-19, nearly 410,000 people have been connected in B.C., including nearly 68,000 people attached or close to being attached through the Health Connect Registry. Nearly 310,000 people are currently looking for a primary care provider through the Health Connect Registry. Through the registries, more than 800 primary care providers have said they can take on around 170,000 new patients. The Ministry of Health is continuing to work with Doctors of BC, the Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC, as well as Divisions of Family Practice and local primary care networks to match patients with available providers.
This announcement also builds on the Province’s action plan to strengthen primary care and better connect people to primary care providers, with actions that include:
- the family physician compensation model to attract and retain family physicians that has more than 4,000 physicians signed ups;
- the new-to-practice incentive program that has 239 new family physicians, as well as and 236 new nurse practitioners working under active contracts;
- more support for new team-based primary care in family practice clinics, urgent and primary care centres, community health centres, nurse practitioner clinics and First Nations primary care clinics; and
- a broader Health Human Resources Strategy to recruit and retain more health professionals to ensure people in B.C. get the health services they need and are cared for by a healthy workforce.
“We are strengthening our primary care system by adding more doctors and nurse practitioners and by better supporting them to ensure they can focus on their patients,” Dix said. “We’ve made great progress, but we are not stopping there. We will continue to build our capacity and build more primary-care clinics in communities throughout B.C. to support our growing population today and for the years to come.”
Quotes:
Dr. Ahmer Karimuddin, president, Doctors of BC –
“Doctors in our province are passionate about ensuring that people in B.C. have access to quality care delivered by their own family physician and are they working hard in all communities to make these essential connections. In less than a year, we have worked with the Ministry of Health to significantly increase the number of family physicians, and we are starting to attach patients to family physicians in greater numbers. Enhancements to the system will help us to be more streamlined and efficient so that patients are attached more quickly, while at the same time reducing administrative burden for physicians. There is still much more work to be done, and we will continue to make improvements based on feedback from physicians, communities and our patients.”
Bernice Budz, CEO, Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC –
“Health care is complex and challenging and serving patient needs across a vast province is no easy task. The Provincial Attachment System brings health-care professionals together to deliver comprehensive and holistic care in a way that benefits both the patient and the provider. At NNPBC, we’re so pleased to work with the Ministry of Health and Doctors of BC to develop a leading-edge suite of tools that support patients connecting to providers based on needs. Stronger primary care delivery is achieved when nurses, nurse practitioners and family physicians centre the needs of patients, focusing on how we can positively influence health and wellness in our communities.”
Learn More:
For the Health Connect Registry, visit: https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-connect-registry.
To learn more about B.C.’s Health Human Resources Strategy, visit: https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/BCHealthHumanResourcesStrategy-Sept2022.pdf
Two backgrounders follow.
Contact:
Ministry of Health
Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)
BACKGROUNDER 1
B.C. makes it easier to find a primary-care provider
The Province is making it easier for people to get a family doctor or nurse practitioner in their community by launching more actions starting in April 2024, including:
- Introducing new, automated and regular communications to people on the Health Connect Registry to:
- maintain contact with people on the Health Connect Registry at least every 90 days;
- connect to people on the Health Connect Registry to reconfirm their need for attachment, check with them on any changes to their health status, and provide information on health services in their area;
- more substantial and customized information provided to people at the time of registration about services available in their community, as well as information about how to update changes to their health status through 811 or online;
- send out notifications when people are selected for an intake by a primary-care provider;
- send out notifications regarding the outcome of intake meetings; and
- other communications, as needed.
- Launching a new in B.C. digital tool that will make it faster and easier for attachment co-ordinators to connect people to a primary-care provider. Before, the process was done manually. Through this:
- attachment co-ordinators will now have access to digital information on family physicians and nurse practitioners who can take on new patients, in addition to the people registered onto the Health Connect Registry; and
- primary-care providers will receive an electronic notification that they have a list of patients for consideration.
Contact:
Ministry of Health
Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)
BACKGROUNDER 2
Actions taken to date to improve access to primary care in B.C.
This announcement continues to build on government actions to strengthen health care and improve access to team-based primary care since 2018.
Budget 2023 provides nearly $1.1 billion over three years to implement the new compensation model for family physicians announced in October 2022 and launched in February 2023, provide recruitment and retention incentives for new-to-practice family physicians and those approaching retirement, and build new IT systems such as patient-clinic registries to support access to primary-care services.
In addition, since 2018-19, the Province has invested more than $692 million to support new team-based primary care in family practice clinics, urgent and primary-care centres (UPCCs), community health centres (CHCs), nurse practitioner clinics, First Nations primary-care clinics and more, with the goal of networking and better co-ordinating primary-care services through local Primary Care Networks in communities throughout the province.
Since the Province’s team-based primary-care strategy was announced in 2018, nearly 410,000 people in B.C. have been connected to a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
As of January 2024, about 1,800 full-time equivalents health-care workers in primary care networks have been recruited, including doctors, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals, with more to come, as the Province expands team-based primary care. Initiatives include:
- There are 77 primary-care networks in implementation. Work is underway to establish them in all communities throughout the province over the next two years.
- There are 32 new UPCCs in implementation with more in development.
- Launched the new longitudinal family physician payment model in February 2023 and 4,089 physicians have registered.
- The New-to-Practice Incentives Program was introduced in June 2022 for early career or new-to-B.C. family physicians who choose to work in longitudinal family practice that has 239 new family physicians.
- There are 236 new nurse practitioners working under active contracts.
- B.C. collaborated with Doctors of BC in October 2022 to provide $118 million in short-term stabilization payments to primary-care clinics and providers, while developing the new longitudinal family practice payment model. More than 1,230 clinics received this stabilization funding.
- The Province announced the Health Human Resources Strategy in September 2022 to ensure people get the health services they need and are cared for by a healthy workforce. The strategy focuses on 70 actions to recruit, train and retain health-care workers, while redesigning the health-care system to foster workplace satisfaction and innovation. Some key highlights of the actions announced to date include:
- As of December 2023, nearly 300,000 people have benefited from free contraceptives and being able to see a pharmacist for treatment of minor ailments or contraceptives since government expanded the scope of practice for pharmacists on June 1, 2023.
- Making it easier for internationally educated nurses, medical graduates and allied health professionals to work in B.C.
- Working with Practice Ready Assessment BC (PRA-BC) to triple the number of PRA-BC supported physicians dedicated to primary-care networks throughout the province.
- Adding up to 88 new residency seats to expand post-graduate medical education and up to 40 undergraduate medical education seats annually, in partnership with the Ministry of Post Secondary Education and Future Skills and UBC.
- Establishing a second medical school in Surrey.
- Expanding mental-health services and anti-racism supports for nurses to help strengthen the nursing workforce and enable culturally safe patient care.
Contact:
Ministry of Health
Communications
250 952-1887 (media line)
IHT5
