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Posted by Times Chronicle | Jan 14, 2025
A new campaign by the BC Family Doctors organization is highlighting the urgent challenges faced by doctors working in rural British Columbia.
The “Fair Care Everywhere” campaign aims to highlight the pressures of working in rural communities and the difficulty in retaining rural doctors in a healthcare system in crisis.
“Rural healthcare in BC is at a tipping point,” says Dr. Karen Forgie, a rural family doctor for 33 years. “Without change, the system will collapse, leaving patients without access to even the most basic care. We need urgent action to ensure rural doctors can keep doing the work their communities depend on.”
The campaign calls for action to address inequities that BC Family Doctors says are putting rural communities at risk.
Among the problem highlighted are, emergency room closures and long waits for primary care, chronic staffing shortages leading to burnout among physicians and other healthcare workers, and inadequate patient transportation and the loss of doctors to urban migration.
Key asks include equitable compensation for rural primary care doctors, more healthcare staff and better transportation options for rural patients.
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The non-profit advocacy association notes that a rural doctor in BC is a one-stop-shop, delivering babies, driving hours to reach patients, managing life-threatening emergencies and providing end-of-life care, all without the level of resources available in urban centres.
“In rural communities, we do it all – we deliver babies even when there’s no neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), handle emergencies and care for patients with serious conditions using whatever resources we have,” says Forgie.
“Family doctors and their specialist colleagues in BC’s rural areas are under immense pressure for numerous reasons, which in turn impacts the rest of the healthcare system, especially the emergency departments which have seen frequent closures,” says Doctors of BC President, Dr Charlene Lui.
“Finding solutions to rural physician retention is a key step to providing better healthcare for rural British Columbians, which will have a trickle-down effect for patients and all healthcare providers,” Lui added.
The association is asking individuals to get involved by, among other things, writing to their respective MLAs. For more visit the association’s website.
