Shoreline clinic doctors do shifts at Saanich Peninsula Hospital on a rotating basis, but as funding from a local foundation ends, the society says it may not be able to continue the program.<\/p>\n
A non-profit clinic operator says it needs to raise $150,000 over the next year if its physicians are to continue providing services at Saanich Peninsula Hospital.<\/p>\n
Shoreline Medical Society, which operates two clinics on the Saanich Peninsula, was told by Saanich Peninsula Hospital and Healthcare Foundation last spring that funding that has totalled about $4 million over seven years would end on March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
The society pegged the shortfall at $150,000 for 2026, and has raised $20,000 so far, but is concerned about long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n
Shoreline doctors do seven-day shifts at the hospital about every six to eight weeks on a rotating basis as part of Saanich Peninsula Hospital\u2019s \u201cdoctor of the day\u201d program.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctor of the day\u201d is essentially the same job as that of a hospital-based doctor, called a hospitalist, in which a family doctor cares for admitted patients and assists in other ways in the hospital.<\/p>\n
Just over a third of the family physicians who participate come from Shoreline Medical clinics \u2014 12 family physicians and two nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n
But when those physicians are working at the hospital, they don\u2019t contribute to the clinic\u2019s overhead, which pays for its operations.<\/p>\n
If the society can\u2019t bring in a locum to cover the physicians at the clinic, there\u2019s a gap in the overhead contributions, said Leslie Keenan, executive director of Shoreline Medical Society.<\/p>\n
Shoreline had been using some of its foundation funding to cover those gaps, said Keenan.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2015, the Shoreline Medical Society operates one primary care clinic in Brentwood Bay and one in Sidney served by 23 full-time equivalent physicians and two nurse practitioners. The Sidney clinic also houses a youth clinic for mental and sexual health education.<\/p>\n
Shoreline\u2019s gross annual expenses are about $3 million, including operating expenses for the two clinics and youth clinic and the society\u2019s expenses \u2014 recruitment incentives, capital and more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a founding principle of the society that clinic physicians would also do rounds at Saanich Peninsula Hospital to ensure the hospital\u2019s viability, said Keenan.<\/p>\n
Dr. Andrea Lewis, one of Shoreline\u2019s founding physicians and board chair, said supporting the long-term sustainability of the hospital \u201cwas one of the reasons Shoreline was founded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it requires resources and co-ordination beyond what typical primary-care clinics are set up to provide,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After receiving notice of the end of foundation funding, the society hired its own fundraiser and mounted a campaign that raised $500,000.<\/p>\n
Keenan said the community is highly supportive of the society\u2019s clinics and programs and was generous, but it can\u2019t depend on donations on an ongoing basis, \u201cespecially in today\u2019s climate when things are tight for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said while she appreciates all the foundation has given the society, she doesn\u2019t fully understand the rationale for ending the contributions.<\/p>\n
The foundation, for its part, said it had stepped up to provide \u201cstart-up support\u201d for Shoreline Medical Society.<\/p>\n
But with every startup, \u201cthere\u2019s a stop and a start of funding,\u201d said Heather Edward, executive director of the Peninsula Hospital and Healthcare Foundation, who was appointed in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not withdrawing funding \u2014 we\u2019ve just notified them that our funding has concluded because we\u2019ve redirected, because the community has asked us to fund family doctors in the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foundation noted that there are about 14,500 people on the Peninsula without a family doctor, so it\u2019s focusing on its new Healthcare Assist Recruitment Program, HARP, which began last spring and has already recruited five of an anticipated 13 family doctors.<\/p>\n
The foundation has asked the recruiter to find doctors willing to serve at Saanich Peninsula Hospital, it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, people are screaming for a family doctor, and when they have a family doctor, that means that they\u2019re no longer having to go to hospital, hopefully, because they can have their chronic care needs addressed,\u201d Edward said.<\/p>\n
She said that by funding Shoreline, the foundation was trying to \u201cto step in where Island Health should have been doing the compensation,\u201d noting the gap has been more than $300,000 some years.<\/p>\n
Edward said the foundation met with Island Health over a year ago and informed the health authority it was \u201cpassing it over [and that] they need to take control of it, they need to fund it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked to Island Health, we talked to Shoreline, we communicated clearly, and it\u2019s their responsibility to secure the contracts with the government over health-care dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edward said the foundation has committed $23 million to Island Health over the next year, helping with projects including the redevelopment of Saanich Peninsula Hospital\u2019s acute-care unit and funding hospital equipment, education and physician recruitment.<\/p>\n
She noted that Shoreline Medical, like other clinics in the area, can still apply to any of the foundation\u2019s programs for funding, but anything related to the doctor-of-the-day program is Island Health\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Island Health said it\u2019s aware of the situation and committed to working closely with Shoreline Medical Society, Saanich Peninsula physicians and other partners to explore solutions, saying its goal is to ensure \u201ccontinuity of care\u201d at Saanich Peninsula Hospital.<\/p>\n
Shoreline Medical physician Dr. Chris Dowler, who does rounds at the hospital, said without Shoreline doctors doing in-patient care at Saanich Peninsula Hospital, \u201cit would not likely be able to function as an acute-care facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from caring for admitted patients on the wards, some doctor-of-the-day physicians assist in surgeries, see less-acute patients with routine needs in the emergency department, and provide long-term and palliative care, he said.<\/p>\n
Dowler said when Shoreline first opened, its mandate was to hire physicians who wanted to do primary care as as well as serve the community hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were extremely successful at that, and consequently, Saanich Peninsula Hospital has continued to be able to function as an acute-care facility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n