Victoria Community Medical Centre

The Need

Too many Greater Victoria residents still lack a regular family doctor or primary-care provider.
In 2022–23, 72.7% of Greater Victoria residents were attached to a physician practice, below both the Island Health and provincial rates.
Limited access to primary care can delay treatment, make chronic illnesses harder to manage and increase pressure on urgent-care centres and hospital emergency departments.
Existing clinics provide essential services, but demand shows that more primary care capacity is needed.

The Intended Outcome

Connect thousands more Victoria residents with a regular primary care team.
Improve access to preventive, chronic, mental-health and medication support.
Provide earlier care closer to home.
Reduce avoidable pressure on urgent-care centres and emergency departments.
Create additional primary care capacity through practical municipal leadership and strong health-care partnerships.

All staffing, patient and visit figures are evidence-informed planning targets, not guarantees, and would require validation through a detailed business case and agreements with health care partners.

The Proposed Solution

Establish a Victoria Community Medical Centre (VCMC) to connect more residents with ongoing, team-based primary care.
Develop the centre with municipal leadership, provincial participation and an experienced independent health-care operator.
Add capacity without replacing Island Health, private medical practices or existing community health centres.
Begin with a detailed business case, operating plan and agreements with health-care partners.
Design the facility for phased growth as physicians and other professionals are recruited.

Learning From Local Models

Colwood has demonstrated that a municipality can help establish and operate a medical centre that attracts physicians.
Colwood’s long-term model is designed for eight physicians, approximately 10,000 attached patients and about 50,400 annual visits.
Langford invested up to $1.7 million in the Goldstream Medical Centre, which was designed to support ten doctors and approximately 12,500 attached patients.
Luther Court and Cool Aid demonstrate how interdisciplinary teams can integrate primary care, mental health services and other supports.
Victoria can apply the strongest features of these models while developing an approach suited to local needs.

Potential Capacity

At full development, the centre could support:

Approximately 8,000–10,000 attached patients.
Potential capacity for 40,000–50,000 patient visits annually.
Eight family physicians.
One or two nurse practitioners.
Three or four registered nurses or licensed practical nurses.
A mental-health clinician.
A social worker or patient navigator.
Three or four medical office assistants.
A centre or operations manager.
Access to pharmacists, dietitians, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals.
Approximately 18–22 clinical, administrative and support positions.

How Team-Based Care Would Work

Patients would receive coordinated care from the professional best suited to address each need.
Physicians could focus more time on diagnosis and complex medical care.
Nurses could provide monitoring, health education and chronic-disease support.
Pharmacists could assist with medications and treatment coordination.
Mental-health clinicians and social workers could address psychological and social needs as part of the same care team.
Integrated services would provide more complete care while increasing the capacity of physicians.

Recruiting Health Care Professionals

Recruitment would be as important as securing the building.
Physicians could work in a supported clinical environment without having to establish and manage their own independent practices.
The operating organization could manage premises, equipment, staffing, scheduling and administration.
Recruitment efforts should add new primary-care capacity rather than simply relocate doctors from existing Victoria practices.
The centre could open with two or three physicians and expand as additional professionals are recruited.

Fair and Transparent Patient Attachment

Unattached Victoria residents could be connected through the provincial Health Connect Registry.
Patient selection should be transparent, equitable and coordinated with provincial health-care partners.
Attachment should prioritize residents who need a primary-care provider—not simply those who hear about the centre first.
Final eligibility and attachment procedures would be established with the Province and the centre’s clinical operator.

The City’s Role

Help identify, secure or develop suitable premises.
Facilitate permitting, procurement and startup requirements.
Contribute defined startup support, subject to an approved business case.
Bring together the Province, Island Health, physicians and an experienced operating partner.
Establish financial, service and performance expectations.
Monitor the use of municipal resources and publicly report results.
Keep clinical decisions entirely in the hands of qualified health-care professionals.

Independent Clinical Operation

The City would help enable the centre but would not operate it as a health authority.
An experienced independent organization would employ or contract the clinical team.
The operator would manage staffing, scheduling, billing, reporting and daily operations.
Governance agreements would clearly separate municipal accountability from clinical decision-making.
Patient information and professional independence would be protected.

Publicly Measuring Results

Performance should be reported through a public dashboard that tracks:

Physicians and nurse practitioners recruited.
Total clinical and support staffing.
Previously unattached residents connected with care.
Total attached patient population.
Annual patient visits.
Appointment wait times.
Patient satisfaction.
Provider retention.
Operating costs and municipal contributions.
Provincial funding secured.