Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
It’s been a busy morning for Bally Singh, the operations manager at Carefiniti Health in North Vancouver, B.C.
Singh is currently recruiting nine new doctors — a slew of general practitioners and specialists. Four doctors she’s recently hired are already accepting new patients.
It’s a point of pride for Singh, who, after her young son was diagnosed with leukemia years ago, made it her professional mission to ensure no patient was turned away.
“It’s very important. I think everybody should have a family doctor and that is my goal,” she said.
Carefiniti Health, which operates four clinics in North Vancouver, is part of a wider success story in the region. It comes at a time when nearly six million Canadians still don’t have access to a primary care provider.
Data from the North Shore Division of Family Practice reveals doctors in the region — which encompasses the city and district of North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Bowen Island, and Lions Bay — currently have capacity to take on 20,000 new patients.
A sign near the SeaBus at Lonsdale Quay advertises that family doctors and nurse practitioners are taking on new patients. Doctors on the North Shore are actively recruiting new patients. (Nav Rahi/CBC News)
Residents of the North Shore now have a 90 per cent attachment rate to family doctors — a number so high, there are concerted efforts to find the remaining 10 per cent. A sign near the SeaBus exit at Lonsdale Quay advertises that 30 family physicians and nurse practitioners are accepting new patients.
Carefiniti Health medical director Yashar Tashakkor says he believes many patients have given up their search, not realizing capacity exists in the system.
“It’s unbelievable. When I ask people, ‘Do you have a family doctor?’ and someone says no, I ask, ‘Do you want a family doctor?’ and they’re like, ‘Really? Are you serious?'” he said.
“I still think a large group of people doesn’t know there are family doctors accepting patients.”
Local efforts, provincial changes
The situation on the North Shore is a far cry from the peak of B.C.’s family doctor shortage, when nearly a million people across B.C. were without a primary care physician.
Since then, the province implemented a new payment model as an alternative to the older fee-for-service system, and streamlined the process for internationally trained physicians to work in B.C. It also launched a Health Connect Registry, an online portal linking patients to long-term care providers.
Claudia Frowein, the CEO of the North Shore Division of Family Practice, says the progress has taken even her by surprise.
“If you asked me during COVID, we just thought we were in such dire straits,” she said.
“I never thought we’d have this kind of result. We’re thrilled.”
Frowein said the provincial changes, combined with local efforts, have yielded results. The North Shore Division of Family Practice, for example, has a dedicated physician recruitment co-ordinator, helping doctors from abroad navigate immigration and licensing.
It also offers in-clinic practice support for doctors to lessen their administrative burden. It offers peer counselling between doctors, and it has sought to build a community of physicians in the area so doctors don’t feel isolated.
Carefiniti clinics in North Vancouver currently have four doctors accepting new patients. (Nav Rahi/CBC News)
Over the past five years, over 150 new doctors have been recruited, 61 of those in the past two years alone.
In the past three years, 25 per cent of recruited physicians have come from the UK, 25 per cent from Iran, 10 per cent from the U.S. and 10 per cent from other parts of the world. Around 30 per cent have been trained in Canada.
Tashakkor says he believes some of their success in recruiting has also come from having a slate of doctors under one roof, reducing costs and making it easier for doctors to take time off.
Provincial picture
Despite the success on the North Shore, challenges remain on a wider scale.
The province says as of September 2026, 323,000 people in B.C. are registered on the Health Connect Registry but are yet to be connected to a primary care provider.
Bally Singh is currently in the process of recruiting multiple doctors to the Carefiniti Clinics in North Vancouver. She says her goal is to ensure no patient is turned away from care. (Chris Chow/CBC News)
Asked if patients from outside the region can go to the North Shore to find care, Tashakkor says patients won’t be turned away because of their home address.
Frowein says it’s a topic of discussion with neighbouring communities — she anticipates there could be physician retirements in the coming years, and wants to ensure local residents have care.
“We’re really pleased with what’s happening — and there are teams of people making it happen,” she said.