The Colwood Clinic – developed and owned by the City of Colwood – is a first-of-its-kind health-care model that brings in doctors as city employees.
It’s a move designed to offer doctors better work-life balance, attract more physicians to the community, and give residents access to the health care they desperately need.
“We’re not expecting them to work more than 40 hours a week,” said Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi.
“They spend their eight hours a day doctoring and not doing overhead administrative functions. That’s what the attraction is.”
So far, things at the new clinic are going well – despite growing pains, including an overwhelming amount of interest from doctors.
“We’ve had over 100 doctors give us an expression of interest. That’s a lesson learned, we just didn’t have the capacity to follow up on all of them at one time.”
Colwood is determined not to pull doctors from neighbouring municipalities.
The recruitment strategy has largely focused outside of Canada, with preliminary job offers extended to two physicians who Kobayashi hopes will arrive by November.
Presently, the clinic has just one doctor on staff: Dr. Cassandra Stiller-Moldovan, who relocated from London, Ont. to help pioneer the model.
“We are so excited to be here in this community. I feel we’ve received such a warm welcome. It’s made all the little bumps along the way totally worth it,” said Stiller-Moldovan, who has faced her share of challenges.
“Anytime somebody starts a new business from the ground up, you're always going to encounter difficulties. Coming in, you see things like not having trash cans and you’re like, ‘OK, so what can we use as a trash can instead?’”
Aside from finding new ways to deal with garbage, working with patients who haven’t had access to a doctor in years has been a unique challenge.
“The thing I've come to realize is, wow – there are a lot of things we could have been helping with, and people have kind of been unnecessarily suffering,” she said.
So far, the response from patients – there are 500 currently on her roster, which she aims to grow to 1,250 – has been warm. And while Stiller-Moldovan is the only physician working at the clinic for now, she’s never lonely. She’s built a network with co-workers and neighbours at the pharmacy next door.
“From a medical perspective, yes, I’m really looking forward to having more physicians here. But it’s been kind of neat being on the ground level and actually helping create policy,” she said.
Stiller-Moldovan said patients have been very excited about the clinic and recognize what a unique institution it is, but what they may not realize is how beneficial it is for doctors and staff as well.
“I’m not sure they understood what doctors didn't have before. I think it’s an eye-opener for a lot of people who say, ‘Sorry, you didn't have maternity leave? You didn’t have sick leave?’” said Stiller-Moldovan, explaining that many doctors work while battling illnesses of their own, because at the end of the day, they’re not just physicians – they’re also small business owners.
“It’s been really relieving. I’m not going home and making sure this much of my paycheque is going into taxes or retirement.”
Since arriving in B.C., Stiller-Moldovan has been enjoying the outdoors and the view of the Olympic Mountains on her morning commute. But there have also been some surprises.
“I didn’t realize there were earthquakes here – and within a short period of time, I think there were like four earthquakes,” she says with a laugh.
The clinic model has proven so attractive that other municipalities are already taking notes. Representatives from several local governments have begun visiting Colwood to learn more.
But not everyone is on board.
“There are lots of rumours out there. People say, ‘I’ve heard a rumour they’re in financial trouble.’ But no, we’re not,” said Kobayashi. “We’re working towards our business plan – right now, we’re right on track.”
Between general push-back and the slow process of opening a clinic, Kobayashi said it can feel like some don’t want the project to succeed.
“We didn’t think everyone would just embrace this and think it’s a great thing. Within the health-care side – whether it be the province or Island Health or whatever – it is change. It means change.”
The goal is to bring in eight doctors over two years and provide new access to health care for Colwood residents. With two more physicians nearing deals to join the clinic this year, Kobayashi said things are on track.
“The great thing about us doing this right now is that we’ve learned the pains – believe me,” he said.
“Have we resolved most of them? Yes, absolutely. Are we getting better? Yes, we are.”
