Update: DoBC President and Board Chair's Meeting with the Premier and Minister of Health
Divisions of Family Practice Executive Directors and Physician Leads,
Further to our dialogue on Monday evening and the DoBC President and Board Chair’s meeting with the Premier and Minister of Health yesterday, we wanted to share the following communication/statements:
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Statement from Doctors of BC President Dr Ramneek Dosanjh and Board Chair Dr Adam Thompson. Click here to read.
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Premier's statement on family doctors in B.C. Click here to read.
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Letter from the DoBC Board Chair and President sent to all members this morning (see below).
Our Meeting with the Premier and Minister of Health
Dear colleagues,
At our recent Board meeting, we committed to openness and transparency in our advocacy efforts to support patients and our profession through this challenging and pivotal time in healthcare. Following up on this commitment, we are writing to update you on our discussion this week with the Premier and the Minister of Health. Our goal in this meeting was to ensure government understands the challenges we face as physicians trying to provide the best care for our patients, and to seek commitment to start working on solutions.
We had a frank, honest, and robust discussion, in which both the Premier and Minister agreed that physicians are the foundation of primary care. They listened as we spoke about the critical challenges before us and agreed that immediate action is needed. We also acknowledged the investment government has made in primary care, particularly in developing and enhancing team-based care, which we strongly support as an important strategy to support Community Longitudinal Family Physicians.
We are pleased that the Premier directed Deputy Minister Stephen Brown to immediately start working with Doctors of BC to develop new payment models for longitudinal family medicine. To ensure progress is made, the Ministry and Doctors of BC will develop a firm timeline with tangible outcomes. We will update our members as those timelines are confirmed. We commit to hearing from our members through our upcoming engagement that will be launched soon, so that all physicians have a voice. The Premier also acknowledged that significant funding will be needed, beyond monies that may be transferred from the federal government.
The Minister added that he will consider alternate governance models for Primary Care Networks and Urgent and Primary Care Centres, in communities where they are needed. He agreed that the forum for innovation in this area is our joint collaborative table, the General Practice Services Committee (GPSC), and with input from the Divisions of Family Practice.
While the focus of our advocacy at this time is on the primary care crisis, we acknowledge the challenges experienced by our specialist members. At our Board meeting in June, we will be spending a large portion of the day speaking with specialist physician leaders and will develop an advocacy strategy that will also be open and transparent. We will be following that up with a letter to all our members.
It’s time to get to work on solutions on behalf of our patients. We look forward to tackling these issues, representing all of our members - family doctors and specialists - who are working hard and struggling to provide medical care in their communities. We continue with our commitment to transparency and regular communication along this journey. And we acknowledge that actions, ultimately, speak louder than words.
Sincerely,
Dr Ramneek Dosanjh, President, Doctors of BC
Dr Adam Thompson, Chair of the Board, Doctors of BC
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