One local doctor says Burnaby's current population is not matched by how many family physicians are practising in the city - and he's worried it won't catch up with future growth.
Burnaby has 164 physicians currently practising, but with a population of more than 220,000, Dr. Baldev Sanghera says the city is in dire need of at least 60 more.
Sanghera has practised as a family physician in Burnaby since 1998. He works in a clinic of seven family doctors and between all of them, they have 25,000 patients. On average, one family doctor should have about 1,200 to 1,500 patients only.
"Right now, the only way people are able to find a family doctor is either by going to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (of B.C.) website and looking through the database, but it's an older database; or contacting the local emergency ward and getting the list of physicians taking patients - but it is not updated frequently," he told the NOW.
Sanghera is part of the Burnaby Division of Family Practice, which is a collective of about 150 family physicians in the city. Since he's been in Burnaby, about eight family doctors have retired and none of them have been replaced. It's led to doctors taking on way more patients, or Burnaby residents having to go elsewhere.
"The BCMA (B.C. Medical Association) did a survey about five years ago and 20 per cent of doctors' overall plan was to retire in the next five years," he said. "Not only is there pressure with the population increase, but there's also the pressure of older physicians retiring."
Burnaby's population is expected to balloon up to 355,000 by 2041, and Sanghera said it's of great concern as to whether or not there will be enough family doctors.
It's why the Burnaby division has spearheaded a local survey for residents to fill out, a GP for Me, and why Sanghera approached council recently to plead his organization's case.
Sanghera made presentations to both the Burnaby school district and council at their year-end meetings to promote the survey, which closes at the end of December, and ask for representation at the municipal level.
The city's social and health committees are what Sanghera wants representation on, and he hopes the survey results and having a doctor on board will help guide policy.
"It's happened in the past, when somebody heard about a particular health or social issue, then a government reacts by throwing money at it without fully planning anything," he said. "We want to change that. We want to understand where the issues are and try to figure out the problem's that cause that issue, then help the powers that be make that decision."
The Burnaby division was formed two years ago, and since then it's been ramping up to accomplish its goals, according to Sanghera. One of the goals is to get more doctors into the city by advocating for Burnaby.
"Burnaby gets rolled into Vancouver, but we don't get our own plug," he added. "Somehow, we've got to turn that around to start to promote Burnaby, what it is. It's the centre of the Lower Mainland. It's the greenest place to live in the Lower Mainland. It's a very well managed city. It's a great place to live."
Sanghera says he hopes the survey will update the actual number of family physicians in the city and lead to more doctor recruitment.
"We found in the past when we weren't organized as a group, the public didn't have anybody to go to as a voice," he said. "So we're trying to provide that as a group. What we found is other parts of the Lower Mainland have been able to lobby for more services, we haven't been able to get pushing for those services to come to Burnaby."
For more information, visit www.divisionsbc.ca/burnaby.
