

There are several vulnerable communities in rural BC that have repeatedly been in crisis, despite the best efforts of the JSC, health authorities, the Ministry of Health, and Health Match BC. The Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc), at the request of the JSC, has made interventions into, and a study of, several of these vulnerable communities. It has become clear that a fresh approach, with a conceptual “blank sheet”, should be undertaken to consider new and innovative ways to provide consistent, high quality health care to the public in these rural communities.
To be fruitful, a new conceptual should include:
Vulnerable Communities project
RCCbc is working with stakeholders from vulnerable communities in each of Northern Health, Interior Health, Island Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the First Nations Health Authority to develop new and unique approaches to resolving recurrent healthcare service issues. The learning and outcomes from each community will be compiled and brought back to the JSC, health authorities, the Ministry of Health and HealthMatch BC for consideration.
Sustainable Community – a community with a temporary reduction in a service/resource that neither places excess strain upon the remaining physicians/other resources, nor causes an interruption in service delivery
Community in Transition – a community with an established set of medical services that has changed in some way such that these services no longer completely meet the current circumstances
Community at Risk – a community where an unplanned loss of services is imminent for reasons such as (but not limited to) impending loss of staff
Community in Crisis – a community where a service, such as a functioning ER, has been lost possibly due to critically low staffing levels. There are many causes leading to these situations and not all pertain to staffing issues.