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Provincial Attachment System

Last updated on May 8, 2024

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​ B.C.’s Provincial Attachment System, announced  in July 2023, streamlines the process for connecting patients who do not have a primary care provider (either a family doctor or nurse practitioner) with a provider who can take on new patients.

The system includes three registries:

  • Health Connect Registry where people who live in B.C. can register to be matched with a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
  • Panel Registry for family doctors and nurse practitioners to manage their patient panels and identify if they can take on new patients.
  • Clinic and Provider Registry for clinics and medical directors to provide accurate, up-to-date clinic information such as what team-based health professionals support patients at what location, and their hours of operation.

B.C.’s Provincial Attachment System is part of the provincial team-based Primary Care Strategy that launched in 2018.

Goals of the Provincial Attachment System

This system is the first of its kind in B.C. and supports a coordinated approach to connecting people and primary care providers, whether that be a family physician or a nurse practitioner.

Goals of the system include:

  • Connecting more people to the family doctor or nurse practitioners they need in their communities, through a centralized provincial system.
  • Creating a streamlined, digitally enabled process for measuring and managing attachment (connecting people to providers) throughout B.C.
  • Supporting clinics, nurse practitioners and family doctors through community-based attachment coordinators who are assisting with the attachment process. 
  • Helping the Ministry of Health and its partners better understand primary care capacity – which is an important part of continuously improving B.C.’s provincial health-care system.
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Connecting patients and providers

The Health Connect Registry is being used throughout B.C. to connect people to family doctors and nurse practitioners in their community who have capacity to take them on as a new patient

You can register yourself, your family or a person in your care for the Health Connect Registry. Starting April 2024, when you register, you will receive regular communication as you wait to be matched with a primary care provider, beginning with a confirmation email. You will also be notified of:

  • progress to match you with a family doctor or nurse practitioner,
  • the ability to update your health status information, if or when something changes with your health, and
  • interim healthcare services available in your community while you wait.
  • Attachment coordinators use the information to inform your priority for attachment and help guide you to primary-care supports while you wait for a match.

People registered on the Health Connect Registry will be matched with a family doctor or nurse practitioner as capacity becomes available in their community.

Attachment coordinators are working in communities to match patients based on criteria including how long they have been on the registry, and other factors such the number of family doctors or nurse practitioners who can take on new patients, and a person’s age and healthcare needs.

 

Available health-care resources while you wait 

There are a number of health resources available to you while you wait to be matched to a family doctor or nurse practitioner. Some of these services include:  

  • HealthLink BC’s Community Health Services Locator, which allows you to search for services in your community including walk-in clinics, urgent and primary care centers, mental health and additional services, community health centers, and more. 

  • HealthLink BC’s 8-1-1 Call Centre can connect people to a Registered Nurse, Dietitian, Exercise Professional, Pharmacist, or Physician depending your health needs. 8-1-1 professionals can provide medical advice and assist with finding appropriate services. 24/7 for health advice with translation services available in over 130 languages (call 7-1-1 for the deaf or hard of hearing)

  • Community pharmacies can assist with routine and emergency prescription renewals and prescribe prescriptions for contraceptives (birth control) and 21 minor ailments (e.g., headaches, pink eye, uncomplicated UTIs etc.).

  • Provincial Health Services Authority Digital Health Initiatives including information about vaccinations and access your digital healthcare records.

  • Health Gateway where you can view your health information online, such as lab results and information about your health visits, in a secure portal accessible with your BC Services card.

  • The First Nations Virtual Doctor of the Day and First Nations Virtual Substance Use and Psychiatry Service can provide Indigenous people with access to virtual primary care physicians, psychiatrists, addictions specialists, and other providers specialized in culturally safe care.

 

Read more about BC’s Provincial Attachment System

The Ministry of Health launched PAS with its partners Doctors of BC and Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC in September 2023. The system provides people living in British Columbia with improved processes for accessing the primary care services they need, including finding a family doctor or nurse practitioner, while also better supporting everyone during the patient-provider matching process. 

You can read more about PAS through these partner pages: 

Resources and Support for Providers in PAS

The Ministry of Health and its partners are supporting family doctors and nurse practitioners to ensure they successfully upload and maintain their patient panels in the PAS Panel Registry, maintain their clinic information in the Clinic and Provider Registry, and effectively use PAS to support attachment throughout B.C.