New health and safety program for community physicians

A new provincewide Community Physician Health and Safety Program, funded through the Physician Master Agreement, will help support and enhance workplace health and safety for all community physicians and their support staff. Led and supported by SWITCH BC, the program offers tools and resources for community physicians to improve the psychological and physical health and safety of their workplace, as well as enhance violence prevention, injury prevention, and more. 

In addition to the new program, SWITCH BC has also developed the Community Physician Health and Safety Guide, in collaboration with Doctors of BC, WorkSafeBC, and the Ministry of Health, to help community physicians and their staff understand and comply with the Workers Compensation Act (WCA) and the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulation to ensure the health and safety of themselves, their co-workers, and their employees.

With these new tools, community physicians and clinic staff will be empowered to develop a custom health and safety program – that complies with WorkSafeBC obligations – to help prevent work-related illnesses and injuries, improve the health and well-being of themselves and their staff, reduce administrative burdens, and improve overall system effectiveness.

For more information or if you are interested in developing a health and safety program for your clinic, please contact CPHS@switchbc.ca. 

SWITCH BC – Safety, Wellbeing, Innovation, Training and Collaboration in Healthcare – is an organization focused on the health, safety, and wellbeing of all BC healthcare workers. It brings together key partners to support province-wide innovation, prevention, and training, as well as an overall improvement in the culture of safety in all healthcare workplaces.