Doctors in Greater Victoria

Colwood green-lights leasing medical clinic, hiring doctors.

The Royal Bay clinic, staffed with eight family doctors paid on salary by the city, could open within two years, says the mayor.

https://www.timescol...sicians-9567849

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 September 2024 - 05:35 AM.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 September 2024 - 05:38 AM.

My doctor these days is in Seattle. This is not an option that works for most people and is far from ideal. 

What's even more shocking is that people still believe Canada has the best heath care system in the world.

I just tried making an online booking at a clinic. No dates available all the way through 2024. Unless something is wrong with their system, that’s odd, right?

They encourage me to book online and not to come to the clinic when it opens at 830AM.

That is pretty wild, if that’s a true representation of availability for online booking.

Yikes. Which clinic is this?

For the one million British Columbians (one in five) who don't have a doctor, the reality is that you have been reduced to being the subject of triage such that, unless you are on the cusp of dying, you will wait weeks, months, or years (for knee surgery and the like) for any sort of treatment, and there is a good chance that if your malady is simply chronic, you won't get in to see a doctor, or have a remedy provided at all.

Canada's system is third world and dropping still further in terms of prevention and supportive treatment, with the only change possible being one that may come with changes at both the federal and provincial levels of government, and even then it's not guaranteed as the system has been allowed to deteriorate to such a degree that it may simply be unrecoverable - at least in the sense of returning it to what it once was in Canada.

Ok, so I went down to the clinic. It’s the Sooke clinic, btw.

If you don’t login at 6AM, the online bookings get booked immediately, so they encourage being ready by 5:45AM to stand a chance. That’s why I wasn’t seeing any options, and they only allow same day online bookings so future dates aren’t an option.

I feel like this could be so easily communicated on the booking portal and to not leave you wondering what’s happening. Right?

Did you get in?

My wife needed an MRI and the doctor in Seattle actually apologized that due to a summer holiday schedule it was going to be a three day wait. Or as he put it, they screwed up their vacation schedules.

One of our friends with a more serious situation has been waiting months here in Victoria. It was nowhere this bad ten years ago.

Colwood green-lights leasing medical clinic, hiring doctors.

The Royal Bay clinic, staffed with eight family doctors paid on salary by the city, could open within two years, says the mayor.

https://www.timescol...sicians-9567849

Ok, so I went down to the clinic. It’s the Sooke clinic, btw.

If you don’t login at 6AM, the online bookings get booked immediately, so they encourage being ready by 5:45AM to stand a chance. That’s why I wasn’t seeing any options, and they only allow same day online bookings so future dates aren’t an option.

I feel like this could be so easily communicated on the booking portal and to not leave you wondering what’s happening. Right?

Sounds like you need one of them Russian bots .

For sure, they should spell out the details.

Given that there are not 7 unemployed doctors sitting around this would simply mean that 10,000 people lose their family doctor so that 10,000 people in Colwood can get one?

End result is that munis just start outbidding each other for docs?

Hmm. If it takes 2 years, it may be some are net new doctors. I sure hope we are creating more new doctors than are retiring these days...

But certainly, doctors move around. I saw one recently who moved from Calgary last year. 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 September 2024 - 08:41 AM.

Did you get in?

Yes! I am booked for later in the day.

Hmm. If it takes 2 years, it may be some are net new doctors. I sure hope we are creating more new doctors than are retiring these days...

But certainly, doctors move around. I saw one recently who moved from Calgary last year. 

Since there is a shortage, any 'new' doctor is choosing one location over another. My point is that all Colwood is doing is creating a model where munis can now compete for doctors. Does anyone think that unionized staff, in a muni owned building with salaried doctors will operate at a profit or even break even? Of course not, it will be subsidized by taxpayers. A new twist on a two tiered system but that is exactly what it will be. Only difference is that everyone pays for priority treatment for a few people instead of just themselves.

Since there is a shortage, any 'new' doctor is choosing one location over another. My point is that all Colwood is doing is creating a model where munis can now compete for doctors. Does anyone think that unionized staff, in a muni owned building with salaried doctors will operate at a profit or even break even? Of course not, it will be subsidized by taxpayers. A new twist on a two tiered system but that is exactly what it will be. Only difference is that everyone pays for priority treatment for a few people instead of just themselves.

It's an interesting model.  Isn't the medical system as a whole already subsidized by tax payers?  Do you have to be a Colwood resident to go there?  It doesn't sound like the day to day office staff will be unionized (operated by the non-profit), but it does seem the doctors would get benefits as they are Colwood staff but be paid from the Province?  

Edited by Ismo07, 25 September 2024 - 09:14 AM.