Patients and doctors alike are feeling the effects of a turbulent health-care system, where clinic closures have B.C.’s physicians weighing their options as their orphaned patients plead to be seen by a shrinking number of general practitioners.
Several doctors have told CTV News they’re considering whether to amalgamate with large practices or leave family medicine altogether with little progress in convincing the province to compensate them for their time, while another clinic in the city of Vancouver has notified its patients that it’ll be closing before the end of the month.
Dr. Brian Montgomery wrote to patients of Mainland Medical Clinic that his Yaletown clinic will shut down as he’s unable to find a replacement doctor and “there is a tragic shortage of GPs in our province,” which means his patients are now orphaned and joining an estimated one million British Columbians looking for a family doctor.
