Prince George residents needing access to healthcare options on evening and weekends will soon have those opportunities.
The provincial government has announced a three-year plan to provide better access to family doctors, while funding nearly 200 practitioners in a team-based model.
Our City has been selected as one of the first five BC communities to receive this network and Premier John Horgan explains everyday needs are changing with little to no options available.
“In Surrey alone, 78,000 people do not have a primary care provider. That’s the entire city of Prince George; imagine that, that there would be no family doctors in Prince George. And, that team-based approach means that we’re going to connect people to doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers, dietitians, physiotherapists, and other Healthcare professionals that will meet their needs when they need it, where they need it.”
10 more communities are expected to be added to the list within the next year, but the Northern capital is one particular area the legislature wants to focus on.
Mentioning the long wait times, an average of 26.5 weeks according to a recent Fraser Institute study, Horgan says right now, it’s all about implementing a faster regime.
“Our job is to make sure that our citizens are getting the quality care that they’ve been getting for a long long time, but that is now strained because the likelihood of significant retirement over the next number of years will grow. We need to graduate more doctors, we need to recruit into British Columbia and we’re going to be committed to doing that.”
The Premier did not say when these doctors would be coming to PG, where they’ll be located or when the network will even be up and running.
Practitioners are set to include anywhere from nutritionists to psychologists.
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Our new primary care strategy is focused on creating improved access to faster, team-based healthcare for people across the province. #bchealth #bcpoli https://t.co/7HUbHZPcAC
— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) May 24, 2018