In 2017, Langley lost nine practicing doctors to retirement, while 14 new physicians began working here.
That sounds like a good ratio, but the situation for Langley residents without a doctor has not actually improved, said Ellen Peterson, executive director of the Langley Division of Family Practice.
“It’s not great,” she said of the availability of doctors. “We don’t currently have any physicians taking on new patients.”
Despite adding a total of 14 general practitioners and nurse preactitioners, that doesn’t mean that Langley has added more clinical hours, said Peterson.
Some new doctors are working part time, some in multiple clinics or doing work in maternity wards. Some are working at two clinics in two communities – with only part of their time for Langley patients.
It can take two or three new physicians to do the work of one retiring doctor, Peterson said, noting that many retiring doctors were working 60 hours a week or more.
A net increase in doctors doesn’t mean an increase in experience or patient service level, Peterson said.
The situation in Langley hasn’t changed since the Langley Advance reported on the issue in 2017.
To find a new doctor, patients have to call around to various offices, but they’re mostly hearing no.
The problem is there just aren’t enough doctors arriving to make up the shortfall as baby boomer doctors retire.
“Every community in the province is pretty much in this situation,” Peterson said.
Langley’s Division of Family Practice is working to bring in as many new doctors as it can through recruitment. Having young doctors do part of their training in Langley is encouraged, as some will want to stay and join a practice or set up their own.
“Langley’s physician community is quite strong, and quite a good teaching community,” Peterson said.
Meawhile, the burden falls on walk-in clinics and Langley Memorial Hospital’s emergency room to deal with people who fall ill without a family doctor.
Peterson has some tips for patients who don’t have a doctor:
• Using medimap.ca to find out wait times and which clinics are open can help cut down time spent waiting to see a doctor
• Visit the same clinic you’ve visited before, as they will have your previous patient records
• If unsure whether you should go see a doctor, call 8-1-1 to reach HealthLink BC to speak to a nurse or pharmacist
• If you do have a family doctor, try to make an appointment there first before going to a clinic
On the upside, several newly graduated doctors may be working at clinics and practices in Langley starting later this summer. Peterson is hoping they can soon begin taking patients.
Limits on doctor visits
Some patients may have arrived at a clinic in the afternoon only to find a closed sign on the door, saying the doctors are no longer seeing patients.
Although there is no cap on how many patients a doctor may see, there is a cap on how many the province will pay them to see.
Doctors can bill full price to the province under the per-patient billing scheme for the first 50 patients they see each day. After that, they can bill 50 per cent of that rate for the next 15 patients. After that, they won’t get paid by the province.
Because most patient visits are so short, doctors can easily see 50 patients and then shut down for the day before reaching closing time at many clinics.
If a doctor worked for seven hours and saw exactly 50 patients, they would be able to spend an average 8.4 minutes on each patient, including time for paperwork.
