Changes Coming To The Cortes Medical Clinic

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - British Columbia’s health care crisis has reached Cortes Island. A number of complex factors led to the resignation of all three doctors working out of the Cortes Island Medical Clinic. Their contract ends on Sunday, March 31, 2024. 

“The  physicians that we've had in our physicians group are moving on to do things in their own lives. They're starting practices elsewhere and it no longer fits for them to come here,” explained Bernice McGowan, on behalf of the Cortes Community Health Association (CCHA) board.

“We will not be shutting the doors of the clinic on April 1st.  That's not in the foreseeable future. If our physicians leave, the worst case scenario is that we have a whole bunch of locums coming and we've been in this position before, where the only people that we had covering the practice were locums.” 

She was referring to the situation prior to the beginning of the current group practice in 2016.

“I was only involved with the Health Centre because I was the home care nurse, so I was aware that there were different doctors every week.  I would phone up with a concern about a client and this doctor didn't have a clue who I was. Even though I said, ‘I'm the home care nurse,’ they didn't know how much to trust me and my judgment. It's like going to a walk in clinic  and that's not the model we've had for several years. It's not good patient care and Island Health is very aware of that.”

“I don't know how long it lasted for, I think probably a year or so, then Dr. Mary Jo Woolgar got together with some of the locums who had been coming here regularly, to put together a group practice proposal, which is what we've had since then.” 

On Friday October 13 the CCHA met with Island Health to discuss the situation.

CC: Who was at that meeting?


BM: “Three board members, including myself. Rose Fitcyk, who's our admin person, was also there.” 

“The people from Island Health were Michelle Crosby, Director of Primary Care for Courtney Comox and Campbell River area, Erin Harrison, head of the primary care network which we are part of, Dr Louis DeBruin, who  is the Medical Director for Courtney Comox, Campbell River, I believe and Dr Janet Conrad, who's the Primary Care Medical Director for Campbell River. These are not the people who necessarily negotiate the contracts, but they are the people who know what's going on.” 

“They are committed to making sure that there's some kind of primary care on Cortes. They don't all want us to suddenly need to go to Campbell River for health care. We're being told that there's a shortage of physicians and given the extra complexities of getting people here, they floated the idea of a nurse practitioner continuing the practice.” 
 
McGowan explained that the health centre is much busier and there are more demands on the physicians, than when she started working there five years ago.