FAQs

Why is there such a shortage of family doctors on the Saanich Peninsula?

The age of current practicing doctors and the retirement of doctors.
The community has grown.
It’s hard to recruit new doctors. This is due to many factors that include housing costs, work/life balance and the fact that doctors graduating today want different things including team-based practice environments, computerized medical records and up-to-date medical facilities.

How does a shortage of family doctors affect the Saanich Peninsula Hospital?

The Saanich Peninsula employs a rural medical model, which means that physicians in the community also staff the hospital, with the exception of the Operating Rooms. Physician shortages in the community threaten the survival of the hospital.

What is a Primary Care Centre?

A primary care centre offers a multi-disciplinary team of health care professionals providing wraparound care with continuity between clinic, hospital and home-based care. The team-based model encourages collaboration between doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and dieticians—which in turn provides better care for patients, with the added benefit of allowing a work-life balance for staff.

What do we need to alleviate the pressures caused by a shortage of family doctors?

permanent clinics in Sidney and Brentwood Bay that are built (or renovated) to accommodate new practice methods;
a hub clinic in Saanichton (at or near the hospital) to provide support to the Saanich Peninsula Hospital;
temporary walk-in clinics to handle our current emergency situation on the peninsula;
aggressive recruitment of physicians and other professionals, locally and across Canada, to deliver service;
your support and understanding while we work as fast as we can to help.

Are donations going to be used to pay doctors?

The funds from this campaign will not go to pay physicians. What we need to do is build the right infrastructure – a network of primary health care centres with modern facilities, separate business administration, a team-based practice environment and support from allied health professionals – nurses in practice, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, others that the group sees as critical to serve their patient population.

With your help, here’s what we’ve accomplished to date

Thanks to you and your support of the Foundation and this year’s fundraising target, we have already achieved some of the goals of the campaign.

We opened a new clinic! Shoreline Medical Brentwood Bay was renovated and opened in February
Shoreline Sidney renovations began in April and are now almost complete.
Four new doctors will be coming to Sidney in the next 4 months!

We are currently searching for a third clinic site, near the hospital in Saanichton.

Help us improve the health of our community

There are currently approximately 15,000 people on the Saanich Peninsula who are not registered with a family doctor. These orphaned patients represent a crisis in health care. It’s not a brand new problem, and it will not be an easy situation to resolve, but we believe there is something that can be done. We’re aiming to raise $2 million to support patient-focused, team-based medical care, and bring family doctors to the Saanich Peninsula and to our hospital.

Help us support a strong, healthy community by making a donation. From renovation and construction of new health clinics, to doctor recruitment campaigns, together we can make the right care available to everyone in our community.