It’s almost impossible to see a doctor in BC.
We’ve all seen the long lineups at walk-in clinics at 7:00 am, all the people waiting since before the sun was up to get the chance to see a general practitioner. Almost everyone has been stuck waiting in emergency because a small medical issue has gotten way out of hand and now we need the hospital instead of having a family doctor to see in the first place.
This desperately needs to change.
Many blame the doctor shortage on the pandemic, because so many medical professionals quit during the height of COVID-19. This had an effect—we’ve all seen the increase in health-care professionals quitting over the last four years—but I blame something else entirely: the medical-school system in this country. Specifically, this province.
Most people I talk to are unaware that we have one medical school in BC: the University of British Columbia (UBC). It accepts 328 students a year maximum, split up in four locations around the province. Their Island Medical Program, held in the Medical Sciences building at UVic, can have up to 80 students a year.
Yeah, 80 students a year for the entire Island Medical Program. That’s not nearly enough for Vancouver Island, or even Greater Victoria.
Last year, UBC accepted only 308 students. It’s absurdly competitive to get in: the average GPA was 89.63 percent and the average MCAT score was 514.2/528.
Prospective medical students, like myself, end up going to school in other provinces or different countries all together. However, if you leave Canada for medical school, you apply for residency as an international student, which makes things so much harder. This is why so many students leave and don’t return to practice medicine here.
Obviously, medical school is going to be competitive and hard to get into. We can’t let just anyone be a doctor, I understand that grades and extracurriculars are important. They are also expensive for the government to fund, which explains why there are only 16 medical schools across all of Canada.
This is why the entire system needs an overhaul. Two big changes need to happen and fast.
First, we need to build and staff more medical schools in this province. Let UVic and VIU run their own instead of lending a single building to UBC. I understand this would be a difficult and expensive project to start, but it’s worth it for the well-being of this province.
Second, residency standards need to change. A Canadian citizen coming back to the country after leaving for four years for school shouldn’t be considered an international student. They should be able to return and apply to residency spots like any other Canadian.
This would open up so many more seats for prospective doctors, which we need right now. It would also make admissions a little less competitive, which I believe is a good thing. The fact is this: we need more doctors and we need more schools for them to go to.
The system has been broken for a while; it’s about damn time we do something about it.