VANCOUVER (April 12, 2022)— Forty percent of British Columbians who have a family doctor are worried they will lose them to practice closure or retirement, according to results of a February 2022 research poll conducted by Mustel Group on behalf of the BC College of Family Physicians (BCCFP). This, at a time when almost one million British Columbians currently don’t have, and can’t get, a family doctor.
Two-thirds of British Columbians without a family doctor cite “can’t find one” as the reason, while 19 percent say they don’t have a family doctor because their former doctor closed their practice — a 100 percent increase from research polling conducted in 2019.
BCCFP released the results of its research in Family Doctors Care: The Role and Value of Family Physicians in British Columbia. The report also details the results of polling research conducted with 800 family doctors.
“Family medicine is in a state of crisis,” says David May, a Powell River family doctor and president of the BCCFP. “Family doctors are leaving their practices and new doctors aren’t entering comprehensive family medicine. Without more support from the health care system, things will only get worse. For British Columbians to have access to the care they need and deserve, we need a plan that supports and invests in family doctors.”
About this survey:
This survey was conducted from Feb 23 – Mar 14, 2022 using a telephone methodology. A total of 500 BC residents 18 years of age or older were surveyed. The results have been weighted to match census stats on the basis of age, gender, and region. The margin of error on a sample size of 500 is +/- 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.