Community-funded primary care clinic opens in Langford, others planned in Victoria and Metchosin

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Phones began ringing half an hour before the first patients were set to arrive at the Goldstream Medical Clinic in Langford, B.C., this morning. 

The primary care clinic opened after months of community fundraising and recruitment efforts, in an effort by community groups and the City of Langford to address a shortage of physicians on the south island.

When the clinic is fully operational later this year, it will serve 12,500 patients who have applied for a family doctor on B.C.’s Health Registry — just under half of the 27,000 estimated residents of the West Shore without a primary care doctor.

The modern interior features arched doorways from the lobby leading to 14 examination rooms and offices for staff. On opening day, three doctors staffed the clinic, but that number is expected to grow to 10 by the end of the year.

Dr. Eleanor Granger, one of Goldstream Medical Clinic’s doctors, moved with her family from the U.K. to help address this shortage.

“My family and I thought long and hard about uprooting ourselves and making this move, but we’re glad that we did and we’re definitely here to stay,” she said.

“We see the need for primary care here, and we are here for you.”

This is the fifth non-profit clinic created by the South Island Primary Care Society, which has spent the past two years recruiting doctors from around the world to improve the south island’s access to physicians. 

Alyssa Andres, executive director of the society, says there are two more clinics already in the works: one in nearby Metchosin that will turn a classroom into a four-room primary care facility, and another in Victoria.

A room in the new Goldstream Medical clinic. (Emily Fagan/CBC)

Since the society started, they have hired 33 primary care doctors — with even more physicians interested in working on the island than they have clinics built to host them.

“The primary care crisis can be solved, and I hope this serves as an example to it,” said Andres. 

“I hope other people will partner with us like the City of Langford did.”

Scott Goodmanson, the mayor of Langford, said that although healthcare is the responsibility of higher levels of government, without support from the federal or provincial governments, the city felt the urgency to take action. 

“If nothing’s being done, whose responsibility is it?” he said.

“We can’t just stick our head in the sand like an ostrich and ignore it.”

Langford contributed $1.7 million to help set up the clinic, along with additional support including renting out a space for an interim clinic at City Hall for $1 a year. 

Alyssa Andres, executive director of the South Island Primary Care Society, shows members of the public through the new clinic. (Emily Fagan/CBC)

The Goldstream Medical Clinic is on the ground level of a building owned by the Freemasons of Langford, who are leasing the space at cost.

There are thousands more residents on the southwest of Vancouver Island still in need of a family doctor — and Goodmanson says he is keen to get started on future projects to continue addressing this need.

Dr. Spencer Cleave, a local family doctor who founded the  South Island Primary Care Society, said access to primary care is one of the region’s greatest public health crises due to the consequences people face from a lack of care.

“For patients to be able to get care here that they otherwise would not have gotten, it really is years of life — and years of quality of life — that will be delivered,” he said. “That’s really a profound thing.”