As construction continues to progress and with opening scheduled in Fall 2023, the Bowen Island Community Health Centre is now encouraging people to take steps to indicate their interest in joining the practices of the Family Physicians and Nurse Practitioners who will operate at the BICHC.
While we can’t yet say who the health professionals are (we are still in the recruiting process and finalizing agreements with the Ministry of Health) you can be placed on a list to be considered once space opens up.
If you are interested in becoming a patient of a Family Physician or Nurse Practitioner at the Health Centre, here are the steps
• Visit GP Link at: https://ns.searchdoctors.ca/
• Register your name and/or other members of your family
• Be sure to indicate Bowen Island as your desired location
GP Link is a website organized by the North Shore Division of Family Practice and has been the longstanding patient queue for the North Shore region to find a FP or NP. This list has date stamps that honour how long people have been waiting for a family practitioner, holds health information that help us prioritize patients, uses secure web forms and databases that holds this sensitive information, and has resources in place to obtain patient consent to share information with health providers.
The information in this list is regularly checked and updated so we know we can depend on its reliability. It also allows patients to indicate Bowen Island as their preferred location.
This is the best, most reliable and efficient way for us to manage people’s interest, ensure fairness, and protect people’s information privacy.
You may be currently on another waiting list on Bowen; however, as a new clinic, we cannot use those lists due to privacy and patient consent concerns.
If you are already on the GP Link list and did not indicate you were seeking a Bowen Island family practitioner at the time of registration, you need to update your information by contacting patient services at the North Shore Division of Family Practice by emailing: [email protected]
The vision of the BICHC is to create a supportive group of health professionals committed to long-term patient care. As a result, the priority is to encourage people to attach to a family practitioner. However, we will retain some capacity for people on Bowen who, regardless of attachment to the BICHC, require the immediate attention of a physician or nurse practitioner. Patients will still need to call 911 for emergencies.
