When You Don't Have a Primary Care Practitioner
Primary Care Practitioners – which now includes Nurse Practitioners – are the hub for all referrals and the keepers of our health history. Whether we see them once every five years, once a year for our physicals, or every week if we have chronic conditions, they are the most vital person in our healthcare team. But about a million of us don’t have one.
This is a short guide to how to find a primary care practitioner.
Walk-in & Urgent Care Clinics
When you don’t have a Primary Care Practitioner, often the only choice is to go to a walk-in or urgent care clinic.
Get to know where the clinics are in your area.
Ask about their policies, particularly around wait times and wait lists:
Do they have a booking site?
Can you call in to put yourself on the list? Often, the capacity for patients for the day is filled early, and notifications are frequently updated on their voicemail.
What is their policy regarding having you as a regular walk-in patient? This often means that you are considered a patient of the clinic but not any particular doctor.
Do they have a waitlist for doctors who will permanently take on patients?
Urgent and Primary Care Centres are available in many communities across British Columbia as part of the Province’s Primary Care Strategy. UPCCs are regularly being launched across the province.
Find an Urgent or Primary Care Centre. Keep checking their page for more updates.
Find a Primary Care Practitioner
Be open to the possibility of having a Nurse Practitioner
Network: Ask friends and family to find out if their doctor is taking new patients or if the clinic expects to bring new physicians or nurse practitioners.
Keep on checking in with local clinics. See if they have an email list for new practitioner announcements.
Urgent care clinics and emergency departments have a referral process for patients looking for a Primary Care Practitioner.
If you live in a smaller community, watch the local newspaper for announcements of new PCPs.
If you see an announcement, please be sure to act fast.
Find family doctors who are accepting new patients in BC right now.
Sign up to be notified when a doctor in your area starts accepting new patients.
Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and the Health Connect Registry
PCNs are part of the Province's Primary and Community Care Strategy to ensure you have faster and better access to everyday healthcare services. It will take some time for PCNs to become fully operational. The Province plans to establish PCNs in 70 percent of B.C. communities over the next three years.
(Registration is limited to participating communities. Click HERE for the list.)
Registration takes less than 10 minutes. You need to provide:
Personal Health Number (PHN), found on your BC Services Card
Home address
Postal code
An email address and phone number
Update Your Information
Keeping information on the Health Connect Registry up to date is essential. This will help us connect you to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. If you need to register or update information on the Health Connect Registry for yourself, your family or the person in your care, please contact HealthLink BC by dialling 8-1-1 or for the deaf and hard of hearing, dialling 7-1-1.
A HealthLink BC health service navigator will ask you for the Client ID you received and your personal health number when you registered. If you are updating information on behalf of your family or a person in your care, you will require their Client ID and personal health number to make an update.
Information on the Health Connect Registry can only be updated by phone at this time. ~HealthLink BC
