More than 30 people crowded into ASK Salt Spring’s usual meeting room at the Salt Spring Island Multi Space on Friday evening to talk healthcare with local MLA Rob Botterell.
Botterell said he intended the meeting to be a chance for people to tell him what healthcare services were missing on Salt Spring — and that did occur at the end — but the conversation focused on what many individuals in the room said they wanted but did not have on the island: a family physician.
Anette Schrage and her husband lost their local doctor a few years ago.
“It is something that I realized is like a constant stress factor that is not very obvious in your everyday life,” she told the gathering, “but it’s there, and you know, it’s just very worrisome.”
However, after the crowd aired various concerns, an individual intimately involved with helping solve the doctor shortage problem spoke up to provide some hope, which was also echoed by Botterell.
Sarah Bulmer, Salt Spring’s primary care network (PCN) program manager for the South Island Division of Family Practice, explained how a working group spearheaded by local physicians was formed in 2024. The group then submitted an expression of interest to the B.C. Ministry of Health outlining what was needed for Salt Spring, where the ministry estimates 3,460 individuals are “unattached,” i.e. do not have a family physician.
As a result, she said, the ministry committed funding for 11 full-time-equivalent positions — not necessarily all doctors, but a range of health professionals, ideally housed in one clinic.
“So that could include physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, mental health support, a First Nations traditional healer,” said Bulmer. “So we have those resources, and we’re working really hard to figure out how we can bring those resources into the community.”
One new physician has already been recruited, she said. He will initially be taking over patients currently served by Dr. Paula Ryan, who is retiring.
The South Island Division of Family Practice is a physician-led nonprofit organization, said Bulmer.
“The physicians saw the need in the community,” she said, “[and knew that the current] model of care is not working. The model of care is to have private practices, and physicians cannot provide the medical care they want to give when they have to run multi-million-dollar businesses and be entrepreneurs. That’s not what they went to school to do. And so this is where health centres come in.”
News of the 11 FTE positions was reported in the Driftwood and elsewhere in August, and included a request for Salt Spring residents to sign up on the Health Connect Registry if they do not have a family doctor.
But while the provincial government commitment to pay for those personnel is a major step in improving the island’s health-care situation, Bulmer said lack of housing and an existing clinic space are barriers to hiring the people needed to fill the funded positions.
The meeting heard that an Island Community Clinic Society (ICCS) has been formed to address the clinic issue, with high hopes that it works out.
Botterell elaborated: “I can say, having talked to some of the docs and to a bunch of people, that we are on the brink of . . . making a very significant change in how primary care is delivered on this island in a way that you will be thrilled about, and I’m committed to making that happen.”
Bulmer then cushioned Botterell’s enthusiasm with more cautionary language, noting the PCN did not want to “over-promise,” when many things are out of its control.
“There are things that are coming, but we just can’t share it all too soon. We don’t want disappointment in the community, right?”
Bulmer said the PCN is also working on the housing aspect. In response to a meeting attendee’s question, she confirmed that the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation’s new healthcare worker complex — which she said is being named Heartwood — could play a role in that regard.
When asked if there was an entity that could accept donations to help build a community health centre, Bulmer said the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation had created a “primary care fund” for that and other purposes. The ICCS is not yet ready to accept donations but should be in future, she said.
Radiology Department Closure
The ASK Salt Spring meeting also heard that the Lady Minto Hospital radiology department is currently closed due to renovations.
According to Island Health communications, the hospital is getting a state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine, with the replacement project expected to be completed by the end of November. A digital mobile X-ray machine is being used in the interim, but has “some technical limitations.” That could result in “the ordering of a different image, delaying the scan or travelling off-island for a scan,” the department stated.