Watch for a letter detailing changes to family medicine following budget cuts

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – The Britannia Medical Clinic plans to hand out a letter to their patients on Tuesday, highlighting the impacts on how it can deliver care due to provincial changes to Family Medicine.

There are four categories the letter focuses around: Time Modifiers, Seniors Drivers Physicals, Good Faith Claims, and Complex Care Plans.

Doctors at the centre will now perform 10-minute appointments as Time Modifiers are being reduced or removed. Previously, if a doctor spent over 15 minutes on a patent the government would pay a time-based fee. That’s now being removed to reduce gross billings by 30 per cent.

Dr. Matt Henschke says they will now have to adjust to this time difference.

“Most of us were trained in systems where we were able to have at least 15 minutes or more to deal with complaints,” he said

This reduction means doctors will have to be strict with their appointments and patients may have to schedule multiple visits.

“So, we are expecting that we’ll have a decrease in our availability for same-day appointments when people need them.”

Henschke also added that the governments proposal to remove Good Faith Claims for the homeless will have a major impact on the city’s most vulnerable, as anyone without a health-care card will not be able to get treated.

“It seems the most mean-spirited, I suppose,” Henschke said.

“We’re looking at people that you know have very severe mental-health disorders that are experiencing chronic homelessness, that don’t have a fixed address, that don’t have up-to-date I.D., that don’t have up-to-date tax returns,” he added.

With this proposed move, Henschke is predicting a complete backwards shift on the homelessness initiatives put in place to help the most vulnerable.

“I mean everything is just going to get a lot worse from a social determinants point-of-view,” Henschke said.

Seniors over 75 will now have to pay out of pocket for drivers physicals as the program is being removed from the health-care plan. Seniors are still required to get a drivers physical, but have to pay $150 for the appointment.

Health-care plans are also seeing the Complex Care Plans removed, which was used to give doctors the opportunity to identify barriers and treatment goals to keep patients out of the hospital as much as possible.

This letter is only for the Britannia Medical Clinic and the impact on Family Medicine vary depending on the clinic.