victoria — health minister adrian dix held back a bit in announcing a new deal for family doctors monday.
he called the terms “historic,” the change “fundamental.”
he also acknowledged b.c. needs to do more to increase the ranks of family physicians, from expanding medical training to eliminating barriers to trained practitioners from other countries.
“this is one step, but i would say it is a pretty big step,” said the health minister.
dix was upstaged in rhetorical terms by the president of doctors of b.c., dr. ramneek dosanjh, who joined him for the announcement and did not hold back her enthusiasm.
she referred to a “seismic shift” and a “new dawn” in the government relationship with doctors.
a new model for compensating family doctors was in addition to a tentative fee agreement between the province and doctors of b.c. for all b.c. physicians that was also announced monday.
dosanjh called the proposed terms for family doctors the best in canada and suggested it was the best ever in b.c.
the key is a head-turning increase in compensation for family doctors.
under the old fee for service model family doctors were paid $250,000 a year on average.
the new model provides $385,000, which works out to an increase of 54 per cent. that includes $85,000 to cover the estimated cost of overhead and administration of doctors’ clinics, which up to now family doctors have had to cover out of their base fees.