Primary Care Access in Rural, Remote and Indigenous Communities Needs Urgent Action

Alongside leaders and partners in rural and remote care advocacy, the BC College of Family Physicians is calling on the Government of British Columbia to take targeted action to address the growing shortage of rural family physicians, as communities across the province continue to experience repeated emergency department closures and service interruptions.

In rural communities, family physicians are the cornerstone of care, providing comprehensive services across emergency, inpatient, and community settings that urban centres take for granted. But chronic understaffing pushes rural physicians toward burnout and early retirement. With the nearest alternative often hours away, patients managing chronic conditions lose access to continuity of care, leading to preventable hospitalizations and complications. For Indigenous communities, which already face disproportionate barriers rooted in historic systemic inequities, these disruptions compound existing challenges and deepen long-standing gaps in care.

These failures also undermine the province's own commitments. BC has invested significantly in primary care networks, urgent and primary care centres, and community health initiatives; but without sufficient rural family physicians anchoring those systems, those investments cannot reach the people who need them most. This problem persists along the continuum of care. From 2022 to 2023, only 6 to 7 percent of internal medicine specialists, pediatricians, and psychiatrists were registered in rural and remote areas, placing mounting pressure on family physicians and emergency services. The situation has become so acute that Northern Health has launched a public web tracker to document ongoing service interruptions in Emergency Rooms across the province.

To address these ongoing challenges, we are urging the province to work with BC’s medical schools to expand rural training exposure to all medical students and residents. Family doctors who have experience in rural settings are significantly more likely to stay in those communities long-term, strengthening the recruitment pipeline. Higher retention of rural family physicians has been associated with hospitalization rates decreasing by up to 20 percent.

Retention also depends on ensuring rural physicians feel clinically supported. Programs such as Real Time Virtual Support (RTVS) enable access to specialist advice and peer support, delivering the right care at the right time while reducing unnecessary patient transfers. Sustained investment in these supports is essential. Equally urgent is targeted funding to offset the overhead costs of rural and remote clinic operations, which support the financial sustainability of these practices and prevent early physician departures.

Investing in rural family physicians is not only a matter of equity — it is a matter of delivering on the promise of accessible health care for every British Columbian, regardless of postal code. We remain committed to working collaboratively with allied organizations, patient groups, the provincial government, and health authorities to ensure that patients can access the timely, high-quality care they deserve — wherever they call home.