By Richard McGuire
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix plans to visit South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH) on Friday to learn about challenges providing emergency service and he’s invited MLA Linda Larson to join him.
SOGH has experienced problems in recent months finding doctors to staff the emergency room (ER) and on several weekends this has meant ER closures.
Dix announced his visit in response to a question from Larson on Oct. 17 during discussion of the Ministry of Health estimates.
Larson was following up on recent discussions with Dix at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) when Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes and Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff raised concerns about doctor staffing of SOGH’s emergency department. Larson said she accompanied the mayors on their meeting with Dix in September.
In Larson’s question last week, she pointed out to Dix that SOGH emergency normally serves about 10,000 regular residents, but in the summer and tourist season, that number is up to about 30,000.
Larson reminded Dix that doctors working in emergency are just local general practitioners who also run their own practices.
“They’re looking for an APP (alternate payment plan) for the hospital so that we can pay differently and have permanent or full-time emergency doctors,” Larson told the minister.
“I’d like to know whether you have been able to move forward on that at all,” she added. “It’s been discussed with Interior Health now for the last three to six months.”
An APP is how emergency doctors are paid in larger centres such as Penticton or Kelowna, Larson said. But in smaller communities such as Oliver, doctors are paid by the number of people who come through the door under the MSP (Medical Services Plan), the same as in their regular practices.
She notes that in their regular practices, doctors can schedule patients. In emergency, however, they may be extraordinarily busy at some times, while at other times it is quiet and they aren’t compensated.
Dix responded to Larson that there are challenges in the long-standing way of paying doctors on a fee-for-service basis, which doesn’t reflect certain work.
“First of all, it’s my intention, within a week Friday, to go to the community and hopefully have a chance to meet with the doctors,” Dix told her. “I would invite the member to join me in those meetings, because I think that’s such a central question for the community.”
Dix noted that the issue came up during the election and has been discussed for a number of years before that.
“This is a significant operational question and one I take seriously,” he told Larson.
Asked last week if she plans to accompany the minister, Larson was clear: “Damn right,” she said.
Larson said she is encouraged by Dix’s response that he is coming to Oliver after hearing from the mayors and her at UBCM. “I’m encouraged by that,” she said.
“I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. Certainly everybody makes an effort to talk and learn about a situation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can solve it.”
Larson said she would ultimately like to see doctors who only work in emergency and work on salary. “That would be the ultimate goal,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s an intermediate plan.”
She notes that doctors working in emergency in Penticton don’t run private practices. The decision to adopt an APP for Oliver would need to be made by the minister rather than by Interior Health, Larson said.
