It’s easier to catch cold than a doctor.
Longtime family practitioner Dr. Jack Kliman chuckles at the suggestion. But the Steveston physician is not laughing at the underlying problem the quip addresses — too many people do not have a family doctor, which limits the effectiveness of care and places an additional budgetary strain on B.C.’s health care system.
“We estimate that in Richmond about 6,000 people do not have their own family doctor,” said Kliman, who has spent the past 30 years treating patients in the community. “And it’s likely only going to get worse.”
A survey done in 2012 showed that almost a third of the 120 to 140 family physicians in Richmond were going to retire over the next five years. Couple that with the difficulties in recruiting doctors — a problem prevalent in many communities across B.C. — and the prognosis for providing primary care through a family doctor is looking dire, Kliman said
That’s why the public is being encouraged to participate in an online survey called A GP for Me, which for Richmond residents is accessible at: divisionsbc.ca/richmond/agpforme.
The survey is being organized by the Richmond Division of Family Practice which was formed in 2010 to give family physicians one voice to influence health care delivery and policy.
According to the survey’s website, the information being collected will be used to better understand the healthcare experiences and needs of community members.
And that is expected to help Richmond residents who want a family doctor to get one. Plus, it will strengthen a primary care system centred on continuous family doctor-patient relationships.
That last point is a vital one, said Kliman.
“Every study that’s ever been done will say that if you have access to a family doctor, and have a good bond with them, your (health) outcome is going to be better,” Kliman said. “And that’s going to cost the system less by way of efficiencies and improvements. Everybody benefits from this.”
But with the average patient load for a GP ranging from 800 to 1,500, servicing the 6,000 or so now who don’t have a doctor is not a simple mathematical solution of adding more doctors.
For one, recruitment and retention of doctors is an ongoing problem, in part due to the high cost of living in the Lower Mainland, Kliman suggested. Plus, the geographical distribution of those patients needing a family doctor can be widespread. In addition, their medical needs, and other barriers — language and levels of poverty — are factors.
“Richmond is a very unusual and different community. We require innovative and transformational change,” Kliman said. “For example, we have the second highest child poverty rate in B.C. Clearly, we have different challenges that go beyond just providing everybody with a GP.”
Walk-in clinics take up some slack but aren’t an ideal situation.
“Episodic care is okay. But the real benefit to the whole healthcare system, and to the patient in particular, is to have that strong relationship with a family physician who recognizes that you are their patient.”
An aging population of local doctors is a situation that hits close to home for Kliman who operates out of a six-doctor office on Chatham Street. There, three of the physicians are beyond retirement age and have no immediate plans to stop working, partly because they enjoy what they do, but also because they are unsure what will happen to their patient base — will they all get continuing care from a family doctor.
Plans are to take the survey’s details and formulate sustainable action to address the needs.
The survey, which closes Sept. 15, is available in English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Tagalog and Punjabi.
To encourage participation, those filling out the survey will be entered into a prize draw.
