The funds will be distributed from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31, according to the province.
Both family doctors who have their own practices and those working in walk-in clinics will receive funding, which the province says it expects to go to more than 70 per cent of family doctors working in the province.
In the meantime, both the ministry and Doctors of BC are working on “a new compensation model,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Dix was joined by Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, president of Doctors of BC. She described the announcement as “a first step” that will allow for the finalization of the new payment model.
Both leaders said the new model will compensate doctors for their time and the complexity of issues faced by patients. The current payment model compensates doctors on a per-patient basis, without incorporating these considerations.
About 20 per cent of people in B.C. don’t have a family doctor and officials from Doctors of BC have previously said the province isn’t “adequately serviced right now.”
