Coming soon: Details on how PCN communities will be able to apply for new GPSC funding for physician engagement to make maternity and newborn care part of their planning discussions. The one-time funding of $1-million will be available in fall 2022 to all PCN communities in the Divisions of Family Practice. GPSC recognizes that maternity care is a key part of full-service family practice. This funding will allow them to plan on how best to integrate maternity care into the team-based setting.

Surgical patients at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) are experiencing improved health even before their elective procedures because of proactive care from a team of doctors and health providers co-led by a urologist and a family physician.

November 1, 2021 | At its last GPSC meeting, members approved one year of enhanced funding to support the networks of family doctors who are providing longitudinal care for hospital inpatients in 47 communities. This funding will enable the GPSC to collaborate with partners to identify a process for developing a sustainable long-term solution for this work.

August 23, 2021 | The BC Ministry of Health released an update with information on the 2021-22 influenza immunization program and an accompanying Q&A. Last year, 1.5 million influenza vaccine doses were administered amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

July 29, 2021 | The GPSC is launching a new program to train medical office staff to implement panel management and assist family practice teams in providing proactive and preventative care for their patients. This program builds off the success of the training pilot program held in the spring where 100% of participants agree or strongly agree that “the course will make me more effective at supporting the clinic team.”

May 4, 2021 | Earlier this year, doctors received the inaugural print issue of Collaborate on Health in BC magazine with their Jan/Feb issue of the BC Medical Journal.

This new magazine focuses on doctors who worked with health care partners to champion and innovate ways to deliver the best care to patients across BC in 2020 –all while navigating the unusual and challenging times during a global health pandemic.

Featured stories include:

May 3, 2021 | In June 2020, the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice established the Sunshine Coast Opioid Overdose Prevention Task Force using Shared Care Committee funding from their addictions project. The Task Force’s goal is managing the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the community’s overdose crisis and destigmatizing opioid use through increased public awareness.

March 8, 2021 | The Doctors of BC podcast, DocTalks, recently featured Surrey-North Delta Division member Dr Lawrence Yang talking with psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Russel about how the COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented demands on doctors, resulting in increasing reports of burnout.