Fraser Valley/Victoria – Approximately 660 new full-time equivalent health professionals will be part of 22 primary care networks coming soon throughout the province. The Fraser Valley will received a much needed boost to services.
The primary care networks will be in Comox, southern Vancouver Island, Cowichan, Oceanside, White Rock/South Surrey, Chilliwack/Fraser rural, Mission, Central Okanagan, Central Interior rural, Kootenay Boundary, East Kootenay and Vancouver.
Over the next three to four years, across all networks, the team of health-care providers will see hundreds of thousands of patient visits annually.
Government will provide approximately $110 million in annual funding to the primary care networks once they are fully established. The team of health-care providers will include family physicians, nurse practitioners and health-care professionals, ranging from registered nurses, traditional wellness co-ordinators and cultural safety facilitators to allied health-care professionals, social workers and clinical pharmacists.
These new networks will see community partners, local health-care providers and Indigenous partners work together to ensure patients have access to a full range of team-based primary care services, from maternity to end of life, for all of their day-to-day health-care needs. In addition, they have been designed to address primary care priorities of individual communities such as:
- providing better access to chronic disease and chronic pain management;
- improving access to mental-health and substance-use services;
- culturally safe and appropriate care for Indigenous peoples;
- helping to co-ordinate services for vulnerable people with complex health issues; and
- providing comprehensive services for people living in poverty.
“As part of our primary care strategy, we’re putting networks of health professionals at the centre of our primary care transformation, making life better for everyone in B.C.,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “By adding 22 more primary care networks to the 17 already announced, more people will benefit from a seamless patient-centred experience that meets their unique health needs.”
