Salt Spring Island residents seeking a family doctor have a new option as the local primary care workforce continues to grow. According to an update from the Salt Spring Island Primary Care Network, a new physician has finished setting up their practice and is now accepting patients through the provincial Health Connect Registry.
This addition is part of a broader effort to address a persistent shortage of primary care providers on the island. Historically, about half of the island’s population has lacked a local family doctor, with approximately 4,000 residents having no regular provider and many others forced to travel off-island for basic medical care or rely on the emergency department at Lady Minto Gulf Islands Hospital for non-emergency issues. Over the past year, 1,092 residents have been successfully matched with a doctor through the registry.
The recruitment of new doctors is expected to continue throughout the year. The network has announced that another physician is on track to arrive in September 2026, with strong potential for an additional doctor to join shortly after that. These efforts are particularly important for the island’s aging population, which has a median age of 55.4 and faces increasing healthcare demands following a 10.2 percent population growth between 2016 and 2021.
In addition to active physician recruitment, the Island Community Clinic Society is working on long-term solutions to increase local capacity. The organization has recently brought on an executive director and is currently moving through the first phase of developing a future community health centre, which will focus on determining the best model of care to serve the island’s needs.
Residents who do not have a family doctor are encouraged to register with the provincial system, which acts as the primary tool for connecting people to available practitioners. Since its province-wide launch in July 2023, the registry has helped connect more than 248,000 people to care.
