A GP for Me: Connecting patients to family doctors

Physicians in Surrey-North Delta, Maple Ridge and Chilliwack are working with Health Authorities and other partners on new initiatives to help more British Columbians who do not have a family doctor to find one.

It’s all part of the A GP for Me program, a joint provincial initiative of the Government of BC and Doctors of BC.   

The Division of Family Practice in Surrey-North Delta and its partners announced in March that they will be expanding multidisciplinary team care in the region, allowing patients to receive more continuous primary care from a team of health professionals.  Team care will bring more family doctors together with other health care providers such as Nurse Practitioners, dieticians, physiotherapists, registered nurses and mental health and addictions counsellors.  It’s just one of 16 initiatives to help improve patient access to primary care in Surrey-North Delta. 

In another area of the province, a group of physicians in the Chilliwack region has expanded services to expectant mothers in Hope with funding from A GP for Me. Key to the success of the program is that physicians will be able to use newly renovated space in Fraser Canyon Clinic in Hope. This is just one initiative of the division’s A GP for Me plan in this region. More information about how the prenatal and postpartum outreach program is helping new and expectant mothers can be found here.

Three new family physicians have opened practices in Maple Ridge, as a result of the efforts of the physicians who make up the Ridge Meadows Division of Family Practice and their partners,   The addition of these new physicians represents a significant contribution to the Division’s goal of connecting more than 10,000 people who want a doctor, but have been unable to find one. The Red Carpet Program is one of components of the Divisions’ A GP for Me planning. Learn more.

Divisions are non-profit community-based groups of family doctors committed to improving primary care in their communities with funding from Doctors of BC and the BC Government.  Divisions around the province are working on A GP for Me initiatives. Keep watching our website for more information as the divisions start to implement their A GP for Me plans. Meanwhile, learn more about A GP for Me here.