Councillor Hemmens Motion re: The Colwood Primary Care Model
Motion
That Council direct Staff to prepare an information report on the Colwood Primary Care model.
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda
That Council direct Staff to prepare an information report on the Colwood Primary Care model.
I will. Provide content. Councilor Emmons. Thank you. So I know I'm not the only one at this table hearing about the Callwood. Primary care model from people in the community. I think there's a lot of curiosity about it. And we all know why. That's because access to primary care is a big challenge. For a lot of our residents. Rather than do the research myself, I was kindly reminded that I could just ask for a staff. Report, we could all get the same information at the same time. So that's what I am asking for, and I want to emphasize. That this is just a request for an information report. I think I've shared with everyone at this table. I am quite skeptical of the model. Working closely in primary care in Nanaimo. I don't intend for the report to present any decision points. But I would like to see what staff can glean when speaking with
concerned, it's premature. Councilor Hemmens, thank you. And thank you, everyone, for your comments. I forgot to state that the city of Nanaimo has a really wonderful working relationship with the primary care community here, and we do better work, I think, than most municipalities on that front. This really is emerging from. I work with a lot of primary care physicians locally, and everyone is really curious about this. So I agree with Samir. We don't want to spend property tax. Dollars. On this. That's why the staff report. How is that looking? How much even the question of when does the pilot end and what are the evaluation metrics by which it will be measured? Unclear to me, so I think a staff report would just get us all to the same place so we could have a
Armstrong and Councilor Gusselbrockman. Councilor, premium. Thank you. I. Know this is just a year pilot project, so I'm wondering if we should wait till. Call would finishes the pilot project and then wait to see. Because right now I think it's. A little soon to be getting that information when they haven't had a chance. To. They're going to be looking at it to see if they want to continue it. So I would prefer to wait the year and then get the report to see, because right now we don't know the pros or cons because they're in
you, mayor. Through you. I think it is good to get this into the public awareness and see it. And so I support it. You literally can type into an AI program like perplexity or whatever. Please provide a report on the Culwood care model, and it'll give you all the information. That's publicly available. Clearly outlined. So hopefully staff don't put too much energy into creating this report because
councilprinos and Councilor Manley. Thank you, worship. I actually was going to say very similar to Councilor Armstrong, that the fact is it is a pilot project. It's still at the early stages. They're trying to see what is working. What isn't working? That evaluation process will be very interesting to hear. I also think that the division of family practice. I'm sure they're looking at this and. Trying to figure out. Is this the way? To go because in the Culwitz case, they didn't have any doctors. We have many doctors. So how would we even consider changing over if we were able to? So for me, it is a little premature. I certainly appreciate the intent. And it's not that I am not in favor of getting a report. I do think. It's a little premature. I do want to see. What the pilot project will bring out, and I do want to hear from the division of family. Practice. So should this. Vote. Go ahead. I hope that staff will at least talk to the division of Family practice and see where they are on this one.
Thank you. Yeah. I am interested in how this pilot project is going to work out when people have emailed me about this. I've basically let them know that our focus is on rebuilding in the Nymo regional general hospital. And that's what we really need to put our energy into. In this community. And our situation is different than Callwood because of that, because we have a tertiary. Hospital, which. Is. Not really a tertiary hospital. It needs a lot of work and needs a lot of infrastructure and money. And in Collwood. They're a very short drive to a number of tertiary hospitals. And a lot of. Other. Care opportunities. That said, I am interested in finding out
I'm not going to support the motion for the reasons explained by councilors Armstrong and Prino tonight. And if anyone thinks I'm voting against public health care, then they don't. Know where I stand on public health care, but realistically, the Callwood model is council, Prince pointed out, was designed to deal with the community that access to no doctors. Councilor Armstrong's point about letting it play out and see how well it works, because it will require a financial commitment eventually. I mean, that's the point of doing this. It's a financial commitment of staff to prepare an information report to do research on something that. Hasn't been, how shall I say, given much chance to demonstrate whether or not it's. Effective. And in addition, Add a wonderful health care form sponsored by the Nama Regional District Health Hospital Board last week we were informed that. The percentage of people with access to, without access, rather to a family physician in the area has dropped from 30% to 18%. And the concept behind this motion would be to get information for it with a view, potentially to spending money to setting up a clinic and experiencing those costs, et cetera, which may well be beneficial to the community. And of course, it's always very popular to do something that where people want access to health care, but the more we delve into. Areas that are properly that of the provincial government, the more the provincial government will happily step aside. And let municipal government and taxpayers with great respect, foot the bill. And so for that reason, I'm not prepared to support it. If councilor hemonds makes this motion in a year, and Calwd's been up in operation and we know it's. A model that works and can make sense. Then so be it. But as far as I'm