District of Taylor councillors are meeting tonight to decide whether to fund doctor visits to the community next month and convene emergency meetings with health officials in an effort to keep the district's only medical clinic open.
The district is looking to move fast after receiving official notice that Livecare will end its operations at the clinic March 31. A council meeting has been set for Monday, Feb. 6, at the community hall to discuss the district's options and an action plan moving forward.
"We've got to do something and there's a couple of different options there," Mayor Rob Fraser said.
"Again, working with the province, working with Northern Health, and perhaps working with the Division of Family Practice in Fort St. John.
"(We're) trying to find a solution to keep the clinic open and viable, and have doctors coming through there until such a time we can recruit a doctor to this community ourselves," he said.
Livecare, based in Vancouver, helped reopen the Taylor Medical Clinic amid a doctor shortage in June 2014. It has been providing medical services at the district-owned clinic through a hybrid model of telemedicine—using technology to allow doctors to examine patients from afar—as well as face-to-face visits by a visiting doctor.
However, the clinic posted an estimated $136,908 loss in 2016, despite the district injecting roughly $125,000 per year into its operations. Livecare has said it can't afford to keep the clinic open unless a new funding model for telemedicine services is provided by the province or health authority.
The company also says it can't afford the $1,200 daily rate to continue sending a doctor north for on-site coverage in March.
Administrators are recommending the district help fund the doctor's daily rate for on-site doctor visits for one week in the month of March.
They also recommend councillors request emergency meetings with Northern Health and provincial Health Minister Terry Lake to negotiate an alternative payment model for the clinic, similar to recent agreements made with doctors in Fort St. John.
The Taylor clinic is currently paid through a fee-for-service model, however, patient volumes aren't enough to cover its costs.
If a deal can't be reached by March 15, administrators recommend councillors decide whether to fund all of the clinic's operations, close it entirely, or pursue grants to help offset its costs.
Closing the clinic would leave more than 2,100 patients "orphaned," according to district CAO Charlette McLeod.
"The Taylor Clinic's hybrid model of care well serves rural and remote communities," McLeod wrote in a report that goes before councillors Monday.
"Changes to the healthcare delivery model and associated payments/funding needs to be implemented immediately."
The council meeting begins at 5 p.m., with medical clinic discussions set to start at 7 p.m.
Coun. George Barber will serve as acting mayor and chair of Monday's meeting, according to Fraser, who is out of town until Feb. 14.
