B.C. family physician says province needs to fix systemic issues causing doctor shortage

A family doctor in Victoria believes in order to tackle the doctor shortage, the province needs to make B.C. a more attractive, and easier place for medical professionals to work.

While the changes to the compensation model will increase annual pay and better account for overtime work, Dr. Jennifer Lush believes regardless of how much a doctor is earning, the province should look at what is causing doctors to burn out in the first place.

“We need to reduce unnecessary paperwork. There are hours and hours of paperwork that are being done each week, and that’s taking family doctors away from patients. So, there’s a lot of work that the government and physicians, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC, need to do to reduce unnecessary paperwork,” Lush told CityNews.

Lush also mentions the PharmaCare special authority program as an additional time-consuming task for doctors.

“There are many, many medications, but in order for our patients to be able to afford it, the doctor has to fill out a form first, rather than just being able to prescribe the medication we know is indicated. So, that’s one place we could look. We could look at reducing the requirement for physicians to be filling out insurance paperwork and forms.”

“Maybe there’s other people that could be doing that, physician extenders, or social workers perhaps could be doing some of those forms.”

Sick notes are another unneeded task that Lush believes doctors spend far too much time on.

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According to Lush, the system as a whole needs to be streamlined.

“I was doing some administrative work, and the system I’m in for my clinic, the Health Authority, requires that I report my hours not once, but twice. So it’s a duplication of effort.”

“I don’t understand why that is, why can’t we have one or the other, and free me up to be seeing patients or doing something else? There’s a lot of administrative bureaucracy that could be made more efficient.”

In order for family practitioners to find some relief throughout the year, Lush says the province needs to ensure there is a healthy supply of temporary physicians.

“Right now we have a 24/7, 365 day a year requirement from our college that we need to be responsible for our patients. And so we can’t take time off unless we can find doctors to do relief work. So the government could also work to build a healthy locums supply.”

In addressing the doctor shortage, the B.C. government did announce Sunday it’s speeding up the process to allow internationally trained-doctors to begin practicing in the province.

Part of that plan included the Practice Ready Assessment, which is the path for internationally trained doctors to get their license in B.C. Over the next 16 months, the province says the program will be expanded from 32 seats a year, to 96.

But Lush says there is more to be done.

“The announcement about the increased access of foreign doctors, being able to license them more readily is one step. But it’s by no means the only step, there are many more things we need to be doing.”

“We are a long way from having every of the one million British Columbians without a family doctor, attached to a family doctor. The government needs to be working with physicians and communities to reduce all the roadblocks so that we can attach British Columbians to family doctors and improve their care.”