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When a new UPCC opened in Langford last fall, patients lined up outside. While some were looking for an urgent appointment, many hoped to find a regular place to go for primary care. Survey data show that the percentage of British Columbians who have a regular health care provider is significantly lower than the Canadian average. While the number of family doctors per person in B.C. is higher than ever, an increasing number of family doctors working in private walk-in clinics — and now UPCCs — are not providing continuous care.

In B.C., the main option for new family doctors to provide continuous care is to set up and manage their own fee-for-service practices. Fee-for-service payment can be a barrier to team-based, preventative care since it only pays doctors and does not encourage the prevention of illness. It also means doctors have to spend time running a business. For some doctors this model works, but research tells us that most new family medicine graduates want to work in team-based practices that do not require running a business.

Community health centres is a team-based primary care model that the B.C. government included in its May 2018 primary care strategy. These non-profit centres provide team-based care, offering access to social workers, family physicians, nurse practitioners, dieticians, counsellors and others and connect patients to other resources.

Importantly, CHCs are governed by a board that ensures they are responsive to the communities they serve. In Ontario, these centres have helped reduce hospital emergency department use by improving access to care — a B.C. government priority. While UPCCs also might seem like a good way to take pressure off emergency departments, studies show that it’s not patients who could visit UPCCs who contribute to delays and crowding but rather patients with more complex medical conditions who need a hospital bed.