Everyone knows about the staffing challenges facing healthcare in our province — as elsewhere — in the past decade or more.
Whether through personal experience or news or anecdotal reports, it’s clear that being attached to a family doctor or a primary care provider, which in more recent years can include a nurse practitioner, is no longer a given. Despite best efforts on Salt Spring, many people have found themselves without an on-island physician, or none at all, in recent years. According to a recently released Strengthening Primary Care in B.C. report from the B.C. Ministry of Health, 27 per cent of Salt Spring residents do not have a primary care provider. If that number sounds high, it is only three per cent higher than the province-wide average, and much lower than a number of communities, including Victoria, at 37.5 per cent.
But thanks to efforts of Salt Spring’s doctors and wider healthcare community, and the provincial government, the number of people without access to a family doctor, nurse practitioner or dedicated care team could start to fall. As last week’s article from the island’s new Primary Care Network outlined, funding for 11 full-time-equivalent positions has been made available to the island. Recruiting personnel and clinic space comes next.
But in order to justify the expenditures, the demand must be clearly demonstrated. That’s why it’s important for anyone who does not currently have a doctor on Salt Spring Island to sign up on the Health Connect Registry through healthlinkbc.ca.
Another healthcare access improvement announced this week is that Island Health has provided a contract to Salt Spring Seniors Services Society, compensating that group to take seniors to medical appointments to and from qualifying on- and off-island facilities. See the story on page 11 of this issue of the paper for more details, and note that more volunteer drivers are needed to make it a success.
We know that compared to the rest of the world our healthcare system is excellent. According to one measure — the 2024 CEO World Health Care Index — Canada’s healthcare system was ranked fourth best in the world, after Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.
But that kind of statistic is of no comfort until everyone in a country, province or community can benefit from it. Recent changes to the system should be heartening for islanders.