As doctors around the province move toward evolving their practices into Patient Medical Homes (PMH), many divisions are fielding questions from members about how this work will unfold, what these changes mean, and, ultimately, what it will be like to work within a Primary Care Network (PCN).

After hearing speakers from Alberta talk about PMH/PCN at the 2018 FPSC Spring Summit, physician leads in Abbotsford wanted to know more. The division decided to bring Dr Brad Bahler—a speaker from the Summit—to present at a local session.

The Campbell River and District Division of Family Practice is working with Island Health, the First Nations Health Authority, and the Campbell River Hospital Foundation to improve access to care for maternity patients through the Campbell River Maternity Clinic. The clinic’s collaborative, team-based approach to maternity care has filled gaps in care for many vulnerable patients in Campbell River and remote communities on the North Island.

A panel of new grads and residents at the recent FPSC Spring Summit was asked about their hopes, aspirations, and concerns for their future careers during a session entitled “Recruitment and Retention: A Conversation with the Next Generation of Family Doctors.” Participants were asked to describe what they are seeking in a practice and a community – what do they want? What don’t they want?

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Family doctors in communities around BC are working with nurses to provide patient care in both family practice and community settings. Different team-based approaches are improving patient care in various communities around the province. This includes an innovative model piloted by Fraser Northwest Division to improve care for homebound frail elderly patients that has expanded to other Fraser Health communities.

Nanaimo Division’s innovative physician support line, the Suboxone Physician E-Mentor Program, was highlighted on CBC last week, following an announcement that Suboxone is now recognized as the first line of treatment for opioid substitution therapy.

As of June 1, 2018, two new fees to compensate physicians for treatment of patients with opioid use disorder came into effect:

A videoconferencing initiative started by Northern Interior Rural division doctors is improving access to care for patients in northern BC. The Robson Valley Virtual Medicine project—a collaboration between the Northern Interior Rural division (NIRD) and Northern Health—uses videoconferencing technology to connect two neighboring rural emergency departments, enabling physicians who share on-call duties to see patients immediately without needing to travel from one hospital to the other.

Campbell River emergency room physician Dr Jeffrey Beselt is the recipient of the 2018 Canadian College of Health Leaders’ Celebrating the Human Spirit Award.  The award recognizes the meaningful contributions of individuals or teams who provide health services for acts of caring and compassion that go above and beyond the call of duty, inspire others, and have a profound and lasting impact.