Surrey councillor and mayoral candidate Linda Annis is once again slamming council’s decision to partner with a Vancouver medical provider to set up clinics here, saying city hall is now unfairly in direct competition with existing Surrey medical clinics.
She first raised her concern in December, when council revealed it was negotiating with Total Life Care Granville Medical Inc. to establish a couple of clinics this year toward its goal of eventually opening 10. Council voted to seal the deal Monday, February 9, approving a corporate report to that end.
Shortly after that vote Annis issued a press release chastising Mayor Brenda Locke for “using tax dollars to tip the playing field in favour of Total Life Care’s clinics. On Monday Joey Brar, Surrey’s general manager of corporate services, told council the two clinics will cost taxpayers about $100,000 each per year.
“The city is providing free space and extended health benefits to the Total Life Care doctors, and will take five percent of net clinic revenues,” Annis said. “It means that city hall is in direct competition with our existing medical clinics that pay their own rent and city property taxes, and provide benefits to their doctors and staff. At the same time, Total Life Care will be in competition with existing clinics for doctors, which are always in short supply.”
“If there is a business case for the clinics, let Total Life Care or some other operator own and operate them, without city tax dollars,” she said. “This deal means the playing field is tipped in favour of Total Life Care, and against all of our existing clinics. Government must be fair, particularly when tax dollars are involved. Giving one company an obvious advantage over other local clinics, and using tax dollars to do it, does not sit well with me. It’s unfair and taxpayers and existing clinics should be deeply concerned about this whole scheme.”
It all stems from Locke’s motion, approved by council last May, that aimed to repair a dearth of health-care services in Surrey. Locke’s presented her motion on a point of “deep concern” given Surrey’s population rivals Vancouver’s, and is expected to surpass it within the next decade. “Yet our residents continue to face an alarming shortage of the critical healthcare resources,” she lamented.
The City of Surrey also on Tuesday issued a press release stating city hall aims to increase the number of family physicians here as Surrey now has only 59 family doctors per 100,000 residents, much lower than other metropolitan areas of similar size.
“This framework sets the foundation to bring new clinics online, increase primary care capacity, and support better long-term health outcomes for our community,” Locke is quoted in the press release.
Council was told on February 9 that one option considered by staff would require city hall to directly operate medical clinics and employ doctors, effectively positioning the City of Surrey as a health-care service provider.
“Under that approach the responsibility for physician compensation, recruitment, retention, labour relations, running the office, service delivery rests entirely on the City along with the associated financial and operational risks,” Brar said. “So based on current salaries, physician compensation alone under that model could approach approximately $4 million annually for a fully-staffed clinic.”
The second option – which council approved – is a “hybrid City-enabled but operator-delivered approach” wherein the City of Surrey provides the space and defines supports while an experienced health-care operator is responsible for all aspects of delivering the health care. “Physicians bill MSP directly rather than through the City which eliminates physician salary risk and ensures that fluctuations in billing revenue do not impact City budgets,” Brar noted.
Under this model, he said, city hall’s financial exposure is limited “with no open-ended financial liability so this approach allocates operational risk to the operator but allows the City to support improved access to primary care for Surrey residents.”
Councillor Pardeep Kooner asked what city hall’s expected costs will be. Brar replied they are “reasonable and pretty well defined in their scope.”
Fundamentally, he said, there are two primary cost components.
“First, the City will lease space for each clinic at an estimated cost of approximately $100,000 per year per clinic. Once we finalize clinic sites and specific lease terms we’ll bring forward those reports to council for approval,” he said. “Second, the City will provide access to an extended health-care benefits package for eligible doctors at an estimated cost of approximately $6,000 per year per doctor.”
Brar noted that under the agreement with Total Life Care Granville Medical Inc. roughly $25,000 per clinic per year will be remitted to city hall to help offset costs “and reduce the net financial impact.”
Kooner said some developers are will to provide the City with office space to offset the $100,000 leasing cost. “I think that would make it an even better equation for us,” she said.
Councillor Mandeep Nagra said he would support the move. “It’s a very reasonable number, it’s a small amount and I think this is a number that we all can afford as Surrey taxpayers. This will not put a huge tax burden on Surrey taxpayers.”
Locke called it “really exciting for Surrey” and a “wonderful proactive way of dealing with what is a very big challenge for or residents right now and I know many, many people who do not have family physicians and the burden that is putting on our own hospital is enormous so this is going to be a real support in that direction.”