[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGmOYcFKQg[/embedyt]
[Correction! The Jan.24/18 event with Hon. Adrian Dix starts at 6:30pm and doors open at 6:00pm]
This morning we hosted an excellent public discussion about health and wellbeing in Saanich North and the Islands.
During the month of January we are doing extensive consultations about healthcare, from service delivery to public access. I am learning a lot (I had a lot to learn). I am excited that we have had the opportunity to meet so many fantastic people over the past few weeks.
Improving the system
As was pointed out a few times in the course of our Community Dialogue we heard gratitude for our health system. Gratefully, we are working to improve a system. Generally, we are well served, the workers are compassionate and deliver a high quality service. The opportunity, is to improve it and make it even better!
Not done yet!
The public voiced many of the same issues as the health professionals. Access to primary care remains at the top of the list. People want their health system to work better together, through health teams rather than individuals. Importantly, they want to feel they are part of the service and expressed thankfulness for the opportunity to share their story.
Our work is not over. We will produce a report on what we have heard and share it with the Ministry and the public.
Finally, we are excited to host Health Minister, Hon. Adrian Dix at a Town Hall in Sidney, BC on Wednesday January 24, 2018. (Find out more about this event here.) This is an excellent opportunity to hear from the Minister and ask him directly about his work so far. It is a great honour to have Minister Dix agree to this event and we hope you can attend.
Open letter to my Member of the Legislative Assembly:
Dear Mr. Olsen,
I am disappointed to find that you consulted 80 health care professionals in the area but did not consult me. It seems to me that one of the biggest problems in health care here is lack of primary care doctors, and the many that are retiring are unable to find replacements. We have excellent walk in clinics here, but complex patients need continuing care. As the only doctor that I know of in the area who was willing to take on a retiring doctor’s practice recently, I think I have a lot to offer on this topic and that government can do a great deal to help. Doctors of BC and the FPs that advise them are a little out of touch with this problem, because FPs do many other things and those of us doing this don’t have time to influence them, and DBC continues to negotiate for added benefits that don’t benefit us all, particularly those unable to save. (They choose “Cadillac” disability insurance that kicks in almost immediately but is not available to all able to work full time with no significant risk of disability, and a great retirement matching contribution that most benefits those that can save the most, while discouraging semi-retirement for when we can’t work 60 hours a week.)
I’m 57 and want to keep my practice open for many years but can’t if it continues to ruin my health. Young doctors know that they would have to work so hard to succeed in this that they could never have a family and/or a save for retirement or emergencies. Almost all the billing codes that make up for the fact that the average visit often pays less than overhead have added rules that make them seldom usable, rules that are easy to ignore so we have to get by by pretending not to understand, knowing we’ll probably not be audited because audits are done on outliers. I am grateful for these codes that many other Canadian doctors may move here to be able to use, but frustrated by the situation and don’t understand why the government even with these codes keeps coming up with reasons not to pay me for most of the work I do.
I could not come to your meeting yesterday because I have to do walk in shifts in order to get a few easy visits a week; nearly all visits pay as if they are quick and easy but that is so rare as to be surprising when they happen in my office. I will come to the meeting with the health minister but am afraid, when you say you have completed all your consultation with health care professionals and the public, that my voice will not be heard.
Sincerely,
Bridget Reidy MD CCFP
Saanichton
Green voter
Hello Bridget,
Thank you so much for your message. I am sorry that we missed you in our invitations. It was certainly not intentional! I appreciate your comments and they are very much in line with what we have heard to this point. We had some time in January to focus on the challenges and opportunities of delivering health services in our riding, but we will be continuing our consultations on an ongoing basis.
I am happy to meet with you in my office to have a discussion about this important topic! Please contact my team at Adam.Olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca or give us a call at 250-655-5600. Thank you again for your valuable contribution to our efforts.
All the best,
Adam