B.C. city’s solution to family doctor shortage: Hire its own physicians

A Victoria, B.C., suburb is taking matters into its own hands to tackle the family doctor shortage.

The City of Colwood is directly hiring family physicians under a new pilot project that could connect thousands of residents with primary care.

The project will officially kick off in the new year, with the hire of Dr. Cassandra Stiller-Moldovan from Ontario.

Colwood says it intends to hire seven more family doctors to ensure care for more than 10,000 residents.

Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi said the municipality intentionally recruited an out-of-province doctor so as not to deplete the existing pool of local physicians.

He said the plan also addresses one of the biggest issues B.C. is facing when it comes to retaining doctors: the hours doctors spend dealing with administrative work.

“We are saying, well, we will take all of that away from you,” he said.

“What we are good at, as a municipal government, is doing administration. It makes sense.”

Under the program, the doctors will also be offered pensions, vacation and maternity leave as city employees.

Dr. Jessep Pewarchuk, co-medical director of the new Colwood Clinic, said those offerings are significant.

“To not have a pension, to not have a benefit plan, to not have maternity leave, to not have parental leave, to not have disability leave, to not have sick leave — this is the reality of practicing medicine as a family doctor or a specialist doctor in B.C. and most other provinces,” he said.

“It’s really exciting and it’s about time we had some innovation.”

Pewarchuk said the initiative was made possible by the new family doctor payment model the province launched in 2023.

Under Colwood’s program, the city will pay doctors and cover their benefits, and the province will in turn pay the city.

“(The new pay structure) is allowing a lot of positive change in family practice, and this is one of those models that’s coming out of that that is going to, I believe, over time be the solution to this problem,” Pewarchuk said.

Health Minister Josie Osborne said the province was happy to work with any municipality in B.C. to develop answers that work locally.

“It’s really good to see people stepping up with ideas and solutions,” she said.

“We’re all on the same page here, we want to support improved access to primary care throughout the province, not just for today and tomorrow but for years to come.”

Kobayashi said the first doctor is expected to provide care for 1,250 Colwood residents.

The city is also looking into building a bigger clinic facility that includes x-ray and lab services.

“We are going to have the highest proportion of citizens with a doctor, that is the game plan,” he said.

“I want to see every person in Colwood have a family doctor.”

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