Midway turns to health co-op to sustain medical services amid physician shortage

A stethoscope sits beside a laptop in this file photo. The Village of Midway has signed an agreement with Prima Health Cooperative to help sustain local medical services while recruitment for ongoing physician coverage continues.

File photo

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MIDWAY — The Village of Midway has signed an agreement with Prima Health Cooperative to help maintain local medical services while recruitment for ongoing physician coverage continues.

The agreement, announced Aug. 13, comes as Prima works to recruit physicians to provide temporary coverage at the Midway Medical Clinic. A part-time physician is expected to begin in late September, while efforts to recruit permanent coverage continue.

Patients currently on the clinic panel will remain in the clinic’s electronic medical record system and will not have to re-register. The Village says patients will be connected with a provider once physician coverage is confirmed.

In the meantime, residents are being directed to other care options, including KB Access, online medical services, urgent primary care in Castlegar and Boundary District Hospital’s emergency department when appropriate.

The agreement follows a decision made by Midway council earlier this summer.

At its July 13 meeting, council authorized the chief administrative officer to sign a memorandum of understanding with Prima Health Cooperative for an interim partnership to maintain services at the Midway Medical Clinic until a permanent physician is recruited.

Prima Health is a not-for-profit cooperative involved in primary-care delivery and clinic management in the Kootenay Boundary.

The organization provides administrative and management support intended to reduce some of the workload associated with operating a medical practice. It is also involved in community-led primary-care models and operates KB Access.

The municipality was already involved with the Midway medical centre before the new agreement.

During budget discussions in May, the Village identified the medical building among its rental properties. Municipal documents also refer to recovering costs associated with the medical centre and administrative fees connected with the clinic.

Recruitment for a permanent physician remains underway.

A current posting through the Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice describes the Midway Medical Clinic as an established practice equipped for two practitioners. It lists support from a part-time Primary Care Network registered nurse, a remote social worker and an experienced medical office assistant.

The position is advertised as approximately three to four days per week. Physicians can also choose to provide home and seniors-care visits and take on emergency, inpatient or long-term-care work at Boundary District Hospital in Grand Forks.

The posting includes rural recruitment and retention incentives, including a 20.58-per-cent retention premium, a $31,893 retention flat fee, relocation funding and a $20,000 recruitment incentive. Additional payments may be available to physicians who work qualifying rural emergency shifts.

The Village said Aug. 13 that the full-time physician posting has attracted interest and that temporary physician recruitment is also underway.

For residents without a family doctor or nurse practitioner, KB Access is one of the interim options identified by the Village.

The service provides appointment-based primary care to unattached Kootenay Boundary residents. Virtual appointments are available across the region, with in-person services offered in Nelson and Castlegar.

Midway is not the only Boundary community taking a direct role in supporting a medical clinic during physician recruitment difficulties.

Earlier this year, the City of Grand Forks and regional partners established an agreement to cover fixed operating costs at the Grand Forks Medical Clinic after physician departures raised concerns about the clinic’s future.

By June, the City said the arrangement had helped recruit and retain multiple providers and that the clinic was serving as many as 6,400 residents. Grand Forks council extended the agreement through May 31, 2027.

The Midway and Grand Forks arrangements are structured differently, but both involve local governments supporting the continuity of primary-care clinics while communities work to recruit and retain health-care providers.

In Midway, the immediate focus remains restoring regular physician coverage.

The Village has not identified the part-time physician expected to begin in September or announced a specific start date beyond saying the doctor is expected to begin late in the month.

For existing clinic patients, the agreement is intended to keep their records and place with the clinic intact while recruitment continues.