How UBC filled all of its family-medicine training spots to help B.C.’s doctor shortage

The University of B.C. will begin in July to train 186 recent medical school graduates to become family physicians, filling all of its available residency spots at a time when there is a severe shortage of primary-care doctors across Canada.

It’s an important milestone because nearly one million British Columbians do not have a family doctor, and those that do fear they may lose their general practitioner to retirement or burn out.

While training positions for new family physicians have increased in Canada, other provinces were unable to fill all their positions — indicating that not enough new doctors across the country are interested in this type of medicine, despite the demand for their services.

In this province, several factors helped UBC attract enough candidates, including the government’s agreeing back in October to improve how family doctors are paid, said Dr. Roger Wong, vice-dean of education in the faculty of medicine. But he cautioned all the efforts being made in B.C. to mitigate the primary-care crisis will not produce instant results, as it will take at least two years for these 186 graduates to complete their training.