The B.C. Ministry of Health and Doctors of B.C. will provide $118 million in “stabilization funding” over four months to help primary-care providers in the province stay open, officials announced Wednesday. The funds will be distributed from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31, and will give the ministry and the doctors’ organization more time to finalize a new payment model that family doctors in the province have been demanding, Health Minister Adrian Dix said at a news conference Wednesday.
“We’re working with the Doctors of B.C. to enact transformational, long-term changes to the way primary care is delivered in our province,” Dix said. Doctors have raised the issue of overhead costs for months, if not years. The investment in space, tools, and equipment is a growing expense, according to the Doctors of BC. Both family doctors who have their own practices and those working in walk-in clinics will receive funding, which the ministry says it expects to go to more than 70 per cent of family doctors working in the province. Dix said there would be no strings attached.
“It reflects overhead but is essentially a direct payment that will go through clinics to all those doctors,” Dix explained.
of the total, $75 million will come from the
Ministry of Health and $43 million will come from the General Practices Services Committee, which is a joint committee of the ministry and Doctors of B.C. In a letter to physicians issued shortly before the news conference Wednesday, Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, the president of Doctors of B.C., estimated that the funds would work out to $27,000 per physician, on average, for the four months. The province says a total of 4,580 doctors will receive funding, 1,100 of them working in walk-in clinics. Opposition parties are accusing the government of dragging its feet. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon addressed reporters outside the event. He called Wednesday’s announcement a “timid” step.
“My strong suggestion to Adrian Dix and the NDP is they have to be bolder. Our system is in such a state of crisis that there are a number of other things we can do,” he added.
The Liberals have called on the NDP government to come up with an urgent 30-day plan and outlined several suggestions that could be done quickly. Addressing overhead costs was one of them. Still, Falcon and Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau say more needs to be done.
Source: ctvnews.ca
Sunday, May 3, 2026
