How do I get a family doctor after moving to a BC town?

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Register on the Province's Health Connect Registry with your Personal Health Number; the team in your community contacts you when a family doctor or nurse practitioner there can take you. BC has one list for people who need a family doctor or nurse practitioner: the Health Connect Registry. You register once for the household, the list goes to the team matching patients in your community, and they call when a provider there can take you. Until then, care comes from walk-in clinics, urgent and primary care centres, 8-1-1 and pharmacists. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. Register once: If you live in BC and need a family doctor or nurse practitioner, register on the Health Connect Registry: online in under five minutes with your Personal Health Number, home address, email and phone, or by calling 8-1-1, with interpreters in over 130 languages. You can register yourself, your family members or a person in your care; if you already have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, you don't need to (HealthLink BC's Health Connect Registry page). How you're matched: Registering adds you to a list of people needing a provider in your community, shared with attachment coordinators working in communities across BC, who match people with family doctors and nurse practitioners taking new patients. When one in your area becomes available, the team in your community contacts you; keep your registration current while you wait (the same page). Moving within BC: The list is kept by community, so update your home address on your registration when you move to the new place (our reading of the same page). Clinic waitlists: Clinic waitlists in BC have moved to the registry. Someone already on a local clinic's waitlist can register, or the clinic may contact them, and keeps the original date they joined that waitlist (the same page). New to BC: Registering asks for a Personal Health Number, which comes with enrolling in the Medical Services Plan. A new resident's MSP coverage can start after a wait of the rest of the month they settle in plus two months; someone moving from another province keeps that province's plan for the wait, and each family member's wait starts on their own arrival date (the Province's How to apply for MSP page). While you wait: Urgent and primary care centres give same-day care for illness or injury that isn't life-threatening but needs attention within 12 to 24 hours, often evenings, weekends and holidays; walk-in clinics see minor illness and injury, usually without an appointment; nurse practitioner primary care clinics, community health centres and First Nations-led primary care centres serve their own patients and communities. HealthLink BC's Services Directory lists them by community (HealthLink BC's Primary Care page). 8-1-1: 8-1-1 reaches a nurse, dietitian, pharmacist or navigator at any hour. After a nurse's assessment it can refer you to a doctor by phone or video, 9 am to 11 pm every day; those doctors don't give sick notes or regular prescription refills (HealthLink BC's Physician Services page). Pharmacists: A BC pharmacist can assess and prescribe for 21 minor ailments, such as an uncomplicated urinary tract infection, allergies or pink eye, free in person in a pharmacy, prescribe birth control, renew or change some prescriptions and give vaccines (HealthLink BC's Pharmacy services page). How long it takes: No open data gives the registry's wait or how many people are on it in each community, so we don't say how long it takes anywhere. Ask 8-1-1 or the community's primary care network (our reading). What a report shows: A report's Services nearby names the nearest walk-in clinic, emergency department and pharmacy to the lot with the hours HealthLink BC lists, and the nearest 24-hour one when it's farther. They are straight lines, and the lists can lag a closure. What it means for a buyer: In a small town, plan on the walk-in clinic, the urgent care centre, 8-1-1 and the pharmacist until you're matched, and register as soon as you have a Personal Health Number. If you rely on regular prescriptions, know who will renew them before you move (our reading).

How do I get a family doctor after moving to a BC town?

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