Advocacy in the media

BC Health Care Matters referred to in the media as “British Columbia’s most high-profile patient advocacy group” is often contributing to news stories and raising awareness. Check out the media links for quotes from BCHCM.

2022

January

Change.org Petition started

Bring back our Family Doctors and our Walk-in Clinics

February

Victoria News

Greater Victoria family petitions government for solution to B.C. doctor shortage

Times Colonist

A Langford mother has taken to the streets and social media to demand solutions after she and her family joined the long list of those about to be without a ­family doctor.

March

Chek News

Langford woman takes a fight for family doctor to the BC legislature

April

CBC - The Current

Matt Galloway speaks with Camille Currie, who recently lost her family physician, about how she's dealing with the shortage.

Toronto Star

Amid shortages of family doctors across Canada, med school grads increasingly don’t want the jobs

CBC -

Almost a million B.C. residents have no family doctor. Many blame the province's fee-for-service system

CTV Vancouver Island

'This crisis is provincewide': Petition calls for changes to B.C. family doctor system

Town Hall in Oak Bay

May

Vancouver Sun

'Voracious' appetite to dump fee-for-service model for B.C. family doctors

CBC

British Columbians call for more family doctors, money for health-care system at B.C. Legislature rally

Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News

B.C. family doctor shortage sparks hundreds to rally in Victoria

CBC

"Often people ask us, are [UPCCs] a solution or are they a part of the problem?" said Camille Currie, founder and organizer of advocacy group BCHCM 

Castanet

Dozens rally outside MLA's office for better access to family doctors

Times Colonist: Comment

B.C. residents are dying for a family health-care practitioner. A commentary on behalf of B.C. Health Care Matters

The Georgia Straight

Family doctor crisis—Let’s use Family Doctor Day to advocate for primary healthcare in B.C.

Surrey Now-Leader

South Surrey doctor adds voice to campaign for better wages, working conditions

My Bulkey Lakes Now

Frustrations heard about lack of primary care during rally in Smithers

June

Kimberley Bulletin

B.C. reconsidering signing incentives for new family doctors following push back

July

CTV News Vancouver Island

Premier’s meeting in Victoria. Advocates out front calling for action now.

Island Social Trends

Protest for more doctors outside Premiers meeting in Victoria

Vancouver Island Free Daily

Camille Currie speaks through a megaphone as she leads a group of sign-waiving ralliers outside where Canada’s premiers were meeting on July 12

Kimberley Bulletin

Overdoses, healthcare crises spur Victoria protests at premier’s meeting

Times Colonist

A group rallied on the front lawns of the Fairmont Empress on Tuesday to tell premiers meeting inside they want to hear solutions to the chronic shortage of family doctors.

Powell River Peak

Group rallies outside premiers meeting for solutions to family-doctor shortage

Times Colonist

Family doctor shortage is dangerous for pregnant people and babies

August

Kelowna Capital News

Demonstrators in Victoria call for province to address B.C.’s family doctor shortage

Chek News

The BC Health Care Matters group held a rally in front of the Ministry of Health building

September

Times Colonist: Commentary

Ensuring safety for each and every citizen is an essential function of all levels of government. Yet when many hundreds of citizens die each year because of a catastrophic shortfall in family practitioners, our government’s inertia, the very cause of this crisis, continues unabated.

October

Global News

Hundreds rally in Victoria, B.C. over timely access to a family doctor

Times Colonist

Dr. Martina Scholtens left family practice to become a psychiatrist and is now faced with a new dilemma — how to treat patients who don’t have the support of a family doctor.  Scholtens attended a B.C. Health Care Matters rally at the B.C. legislature on Saturday

November

Canadian Healthcare Network

BC’s new FP billing model: ‘Seismic’ enough to save primary care?

National Post

Canada used to have one of the best doctor ratios in the world. What happened?

2023

January

BC Medical Journal

Ms Currie and her committed team of volunteers also organized two successful rallies at the BC legislature, and her work has shone a light on the primary care crisis at a crucial juncture.

Time Colonist: Comment

We have never once met to discuss the health-care crisis in this province, or solutions to the family doctor shortage, despite overwhelming public pressure as evidenced by the Herculean advocacy efforts of B.C. Healthcare Matters.

February

CBC The Current a Crisis in Care

Doctors and patients share ideas about solving Canada's health-care crisis. "Every single voice can have an impact. Every single story can have an impact." Camille Currie

Times Colonist

Victoria has second-highest wait times in Canada for walk-in clinics. Victoria patients waited an average 137 minutes — more than two hours — per visit at walk-in clinics in 2022, the second-highest in the country after North Vancouver.

March

CTV News

More support needed in B.C. cancer plan for those without family doctors, advocates say

Times Colonist: Comment

Dr. Adrian Fine: Two examples of government inertia in health matters. Provision of safe births and adequate primary care are widely accepted minimum standards in most developed countries — yet B.C. fails miserably in both. -

May

CBC On the Cost with Gloria Macarenko

B.C. Health Care Matters director Dr. Adrian Fine speaks with Belle Puri about what he makes of the back-to-back announcement…"An admission of absolute failure"

August

CTV News

The founder of British Columbia’s most high-profile patient advocacy group (BCHCM) called the situation scary and alarming.

The Georgia Straight

Dr. Adrian Fine: The B.C. NDP's healthcare carnage—do our lives matter?

September

Global News

Hundreds of surgeries postponed as Vancouver Island hospital closes operating room. “If people were able to access more timely primary care, perhaps more preventative medicine could help avoid this higher demand of surgeries,” said Camille Currie, president of BC Health Care Matters.

Surrey Now-Leader

On eve of health care rally, Dix hails progress to improve care at Surrey hospital

Surrey Now-Leader

Camille Currie, president of BC Healthcare Matters, said the purpose of the rally was to shine a spotlight on Surrey Memorial Hospital.

Globe and Mail

A group of doctors and health workers affiliated with the advocacy group BC Health Care Matters said they plan to rally in front of Surrey City Hall Saturday to demand further action. Dix said he would be listening but cannot attend.

Daily Hive News

"Never be acceptable": Surrey doctor is done with healthcare double standards

CBC

B.C. health minister warns high demand for emergency medical care may be 'new normal'

Times Colonist: Commentary

Four ways to interpret ‘normal’ comment. Dix’s speech reflected disregard for B.C. residents’ lives and suffering and insults the dignity of all health-care staff who work under impossible conditions.

November

CTV News Vancouver Island

The Colwood walk-in clinic closed last year, leaving the community without a family doctor. It will reopen with two doctors next month. Camille Currie hopes the Government doesn’t see it as an out for them but an opportunity to find new ways to help walk-ins succeed.

December

CTV News Vancouver

Health-care boost or profit-driven bureaucracy? B.C. offers virtual care contract. “This money could've been used in a very different way,” she says. “It could help bolster our community practices versus now how many millions of dollars – perhaps billions of dollars, I don't know – will be funnelled into corporations, instead of the clinics that are struggling.”

CTV Vancouver Island

“I’m really concerned as well when these kinds of very life-altering surgeries, which is what this is, are considered elective surgeries because the concern is that too often that’s used as an acceptable excuse for delays like this,” says founder Camille Currie.

CHECK News

Shelbourne Medical Clinic closure adds to South Island care woes. Finding a doctor requires both luck and timing, something Currie says should never be associated with healthcare. “It breaks my heart a little to hear someone say they’re lucky to have a family doctor,” she says.

2024

January

Victoria Rumble Room

BC Health Care Crisis 2024 with Camille Currie. Lots of promising promises, but little action.